Affinity definition

Affinity





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6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Affinity \Af*fin"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Affinities}. [OF. afinit['e],
     F. affinit['e], L. affinites, fr. affinis. See {Affined}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Relationship by marriage (as between a husband and his
        wife's blood relations, or between a wife and her
        husband's blood relations); -- in contradistinction to


        consanguinity, or relationship by blood; -- followed by
        with, to, or between.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh.   --1 Kings iii.
                                                    1.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Kinship generally; close agreement; relation; conformity;
        resemblance; connection; as, the affinity of sounds, of
        colors, or of languages.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              There is a close affinity between imposture and
              credulity.                            --Sir G. C.
                                                    Lewis.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Companionship; acquaintance. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              About forty years past, I began a happy affinity
              with William Cranmer.                 --Burton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Chem.) That attraction which takes place, at an
        insensible distance, between the heterogeneous particles
        of bodies, and unites them to form chemical compounds;
        chemism; chemical or elective affinity or attraction.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Nat. Hist.) A relation between species or higher groups
        dependent on resemblance in the whole plan of structure,
        and indicating community of origin.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. (Spiritualism) A superior spiritual relationship or
        attraction held to exist sometimes between persons, esp.
        persons of the opposite sex; also, the man or woman who
        exerts such psychical or spiritual attraction.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Attraction \At*trac"tion\, n. [L. attractio: cf. F. attraction.]
     1. (Physics) An invisible power in a body by which it draws
        anything to itself; the power in nature acting mutually
        between bodies or ultimate particles, tending to draw them
        together, or to produce their cohesion or combination, and
        conversely resisting separation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Attraction is exerted at both sensible and insensible
           distances, and is variously denominated according to
           its qualities or phenomena. Under attraction at
           sensible distances, there are, -- (1.)
  
     {Attraction of gravitation}, which acts at all distances
        throughout the universe, with a force proportional
        directly to the product of the masses of the bodies and
        inversely to the square of their distances apart. (2.)
  
     {Magnetic}, {diamagnetic}, and {electrical attraction}, each
        of which is limited in its sensible range and is polar in
        its action, a property dependent on the quality or
        condition of matter, and not on its quantity. Under
        attraction at insensible distances, there are, -- (1.)
  
     {Adhesive attraction}, attraction between surfaces of
        sensible extent, or by the medium of an intervening
        substance. (2.)
  
     {Cohesive attraction}, attraction between ultimate particles,
        whether like or unlike, and causing simply an aggregation
        or a union of those particles, as in the absorption of
        gases by charcoal, or of oxygen by spongy platinum, or the
        process of solidification or crystallization. The power in
        adhesive attraction is strictly the same as that of
        cohesion. (3.)
  
     {Capillary attraction}, attraction causing a liquid to rise,
        in capillary tubes or interstices, above its level
        outside, as in very small glass tubes, or a sponge, or any
        porous substance, when one end is inserted in the liquid.
        It is a special case of cohesive attraction. (4.)
  
     {Chemical attraction}, or
  
     {affinity}, that peculiar force which causes elementary
        atoms, or groups of atoms, to unite to form molecules.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The act or property of attracting; the effect of the power
        or operation of attraction. --Newton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. The power or act of alluring, drawing to, inviting, or
        engaging; an attractive quality; as, the attraction of
        beauty or eloquence.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. That which attracts; an attractive object or feature.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Allurement; enticement; charm.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  affinity
       n 1: the force attracting atoms to each other and binding them
            together in a molecule; "basic dyes have an affinity for
            wool and silk" [syn: {chemical attraction}]
       2: (immunology) the attraction between an antigen and an
          antibody
       3: kinship by marriage or adoption; not a blood relationship
          [syn: {kinship by marriage}] [ant: {consanguinity}]
       4: (biology) state of relationship between organisms or groups
          of organisms resulting in resemblance in structure or
          structural parts; "in anatomical structure prehistoric man
          shows close affinity with modern humans" [syn: {phylogenetic
          relation}]
       5: a close connection marked by community of interests or
          similarity in nature or character; "found a natural
          affinity with the immigrants"; "felt a deep kinship with
          the other students"; "anthropology's kinship with the
          humanities" [syn: {kinship}]
       6: inherent resemblance between persons or things
       7: a natural attraction or feeling of kinship; "an affinity for
          politics"; "the mysterious affinity between them";
          "James's affinity with Sam"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  212 Moby Thesaurus words for "affinity":
     a thing for, accord, accordance, addition, adduction, adjunct,
     affairs, affiliation, agape, agreement, alikeness, alliance,
     allurement, amity, analogy, approximation, aptitude, aptness,
     assemblage, assent, association, attractance, attraction,
     attractiveness, attractivity, bag, bent, bias, bond,
     bonds of harmony, brotherly love, capillarity,
     capillary attraction, caritas, cast, cement of friendship,
     centripetal force, charity, chorus, chosen kind, chumminess,
     closeness, coherence, coincidence, combination, communion,
     community, community of interests, comparison, compatibility,
     conatus, concert, concord, concordance, conduciveness, conformance,
     conformation, conformity, congeneracy, congeniality, congruence,
     congruency, congruity, connateness, connaturality, connaturalness,
     connature, connectedness, connection, consistency, consonance,
     consort, contiguity, contrariety, cooperation, correspondence,
     cup of tea, dealings, deduction, delight, diathesis, disjunction,
     disposition, drag, draw, druthers, eagerness, empathy, equivalence,
     esprit, esprit de corps, familiarity, family connection,
     family favor, family likeness, fancy, fascination, favor,
     feeling for, feeling of identity, fellow feeling, fellowship,
     filiation, fondness, frictionlessness, friendliness,
     generic resemblance, good vibes, good vibrations, gravitation,
     gravity, happy family, harmony, homology, identity, inclination,
     inseparableness, intercourse, intersection, intimacy,
     intimate acquaintance, junction, kinship, leaning, liability,
     liaison, like-mindedness, liking, link, linkage, linking, love,
     magnetism, marital affinity, marriage connection,
     marriage relationship, mateyness, mutual affinity,
     mutual attraction, mutuality, nearness, oneness, overlap,
     palliness, parallelism, partiality, particular choice, peace,
     penchant, personal choice, predilection, predisposition,
     preference, prejudice, prepossession, probability, proclivity,
     proneness, propensity, propinquity, proximity, pull, pulling power,
     rapport, rapprochement, readiness, reciprocity, relatedness,
     relation, relations, relationship, resemblance, self-consistency,
     semblance, sensitivity to, sharing, similarity, simile, similitude,
     soft spot, solidarity, special affinity, style, susceptibility,
     symmetry, sympathy, symphony, sync, synchronism, tally, taste,
     team spirit, tendency, thing, tie, tie-in, timing, traction,
     tropism, tug, turn, twist, type, understanding, uniformity, union,
     unison, unisonance, unity, warp, weakness, willingness
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Affinity
     relationship by alliance (2 Chr. 18:1) or by marriage (1 Kings
     3:1). Marriages are prohibited within certain degrees of
     affinity, enumerated Lev. 18:6-17. Consanguinity is relationship
     by blood.
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  AFFINITY. A connexion formed by marriage, which places the husband in the
  same degree of nominal propinquity to the relations of the wife, as that in
  which she herself stands towards them, and gives to the wife the same
  reciprocal connexion with the relations of the husband. It is used in
  contradistinction to consanguinity. (q.v.) It is no real kindred.
       2. Affinity or alliance is very different from kindred. Kindred are
  relations. by blood; affinity is the tie which exists between one of the
  spouses with the kindred of the other; thus, the relations, of my wife, her
  brothers, her sisters, her uncles, are allied to me by affinity, and my
  brothers, sisters, &c., are allied in the same way to my wife. But my
  brother and the sister of my wife are not allied by the ties of affinity:
  This will appear by the following paradigms
  
            My wife's father             ---|
            |                               |
            |                               |
       -----------------|                   |
       |                |                   |-- are all allied to me.
  Ego ----- My Wife     My wife's sister ---|
                  |                         |
                  My wife's niece        ---|
                  My wife's father       ---|
        My Father     |                     |              |My brother
            |         |                     |              |and my wife's
            |         |                     |              |sister are
      |---------------|          |----------|              |not allied
      |               |          |          |              |to each other
  My brother          Ego ---- My wife,  My wife's sister  |
  
       3. A person cannot, by legal succession, receive an inheritance from a
  relation by affinity; neither does it extend to the nearest relations of
  husband and wife, so as to create a mutual relation between them. The
  degrees of affinity are computed in the same way as those of consanguinity.
  See Pothier, Traite du Mariage, part 3, ch. 3, art. 2, and see 5 M. R. 296;
  Inst. 1, 10, 6; Dig. 38, 10, 4, 3; 1 Phillim. R. 210; S. C. 1 Eng. Eccl. R.
  72; article Marriage.
  
  

















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