Affectation. This word, which comes from the Latin affectare – to seek out with care, is applicable to various things. Affectation in a person is specifically a manner of being which is or appears to be too carefully sought out, and which is in glaring contrast with the usual manner of being of that person or with people’s ordinary manner of being. Affectation is therefore often a relative term and one of comparison, so that what is affectation in someone in respect to that person’s character or lifestyle would not be considered such in someone of a different or opposite character; thus, gentleness is often affected in a wrathful man, largesse is in a miser, etc.

The gait of a Dancing Master and of the majority of those called petits Maîtres  [1] is an affected one, because it differs from people’s normal walk and because it appears too sought out in those who have it, even if because of their long habit it has become normal and as though natural to them.

Speeches full of greatness of spirit and of philosophy are affectation in someone who, after paying court to grandees, plays the philosopher with his peers. Nothing is more opposed to philosophical maxims than a conduct in which one is often forced to practice opposite conducts.

Great flatterers are usually full of affectation, especially when their compliments are addressed to mediocre people – as much because it is not plausible that they actually think all the great things they say about them, as because their face often betrays their speech, such that they would be better served only speaking with a mask on.

Note

1. The French term signified “dandy” already in the 17 ^th c. and has been adopted in English.