/afford-meaning-etymology

-) Transitive verb. 

-) Pronunciation and accent: əfɔəd, (America: əfɔərd)

-) Etymology: from Middle English aforthen, from ge- (perfective prefix) + forthian “to promote, forward, cause to come forth, to further”, from forth “forth, forward”.

-) It is dated from the beginning of 1000.

-) 1. Obsolete meaning: to promote or forward to completion. Hence: to execute, accomplish, achieve.

-) 2. To be able, as having the means or the money for that.

-) It is used with auxiliary verb “can” and with an infinitive (formerly with a subordinate clause) as the direct object.

The bedchamber was furnished in an equally unostentatious manner, so it really was understandable, that Mrs. Symes could afford to let her rooms ' for a permanency' at ten shillings a week.

C. Crosland… Lydia… 1852

He was a man […] who had money also of his own, and who might well afford to marry.

A. Trollope… Tales of all countries… 1861

… his firm conviction was that none but a millionnaire could afford to live in this the very cheapest capital of Europe!

C. Lever… The Daltons… 1904

-) 3. In particular: to be able to buy or maintain (something); to be able to bear the cost of.

… to defray the expence of the most liberal education France could afford to herself and his daughter…

E. Spence… How to be rid of a wife… 1823

… I love you so well that I can afford to be patient for you.

A. Trollope… The Claverings… 1866

Ford also began paying his workers $5 a day, a huge sum at the time, so they could afford the cars they were making.

M. J. O'Neal… America in The 1920s… 2005

-) 4. (Without “can”) to be able to give or spare (something); to manage to give.

… I am a stranger; and entreat you to afford me food and shelter.

J. Aikin… Evening at Home… 1796

-) 5. Obsolete meaning: to be able, or manage, to sell (something) at such a price.

-) 6. Metaphor: (subject: a thing) to be capable of “giving” (something); to give.

That these lines were written in English - a language with which I had not believed their author acquainted - afforded me little matter for surprise.

Poe… The Assignation… 1834

Augustus had, undoubtedly, good reasons for wishing me to remain concealed, and I formed a thousand surmises as to what they could be — but I could think of nothing affording a satisfactory solution of the mystery.

Poe… Gordon Pym… 1838

… this depth decreases so as not to afford a convenient passage for a vessel, without the risk of splitting on the rocks, which happens even in the calmest weather.

Poe… A Descent… 1841

We came at length to an elevated table-land of wonderful fertility and beauty, affording a panoramic prospect very little less in extent than that of Aetna…

Poe… The Domain… 1847

-) 7. Metaphor: (subject: a thing) to yield naturally.

The tunny-fish generally runs from fifty to one hundred weight; but some of them are much larger. They are immediately gutted, boiled, and cut in slices. The guts and head afford oil: the slices are partly dried, to be eaten occasionally with oil and vinegar, or barrelled up in oil, to be exported.

T. Smollett…Travels Through France and Italy… 1766

For several days after this fruitless search we were occupied in exploring every part of the summit of the hill, in order to inform ourselves of its actual resources. We found that it would afford us no food, with the exception of the unwholesome filberts, and a rank species of scurvy grass which grew in a little patch of not more than four rods square, and would be soon exhausted.

Poe… Gordon Pym… 1838

-) Words derived from the verb “afford”: affordable, affordably, afforder, affording, unaffordable.

 

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