Dictionary

affectedly en · ADV

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English affected Middle English -ly English -ly English affectedly From affected + -ly.

Meanings

1. In an affected manner; hypocritically; with more show than reality.
   • I was resolved to decline all imitations for the future, and stick to the original, uncouth as it might be. Better, thought I, to be naturally clownish, than affectedly ridiculous […] 1776, Samuel Jackson Pratt, chapter 68, in Liberal Opinions, volume 4, London: G. Robinson & J. Bew, pages 4–5:
   • 1614, Thomas Lodge (translator), The Workes of Lucius Annæus Seneca, London: William Stansby, Epistles to Lucilius, Epist. 115, p. 463, The speech is the Image of the minde: if a man mince it, disguise and polish it ouer curiously, it is a signe that he which speaketh it, is an hypocrite, and little worth. It is no manly ornament to speake affectedly.
   • Schomberg turned up, yawning affectedly, almost before Davidson had regained his seat. 1915, Joseph Conrad, chapter 7, in Victory, New York: Modern Library, published 1921, page 57:
   • Her manners shewed good sense and good breeding; they were neither shy, nor affectedly open […] 1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 114:
2. (obsolete) Lovingly; with tender care.
   • 1628, John Earle, Micro-cosmographie, or, A Peece of the World Discovered; in Essayes and Characters, London: Edward Blount, 55. “A stayed Man,” One not hasty to pursue the new Fashion, nor yet affectedly true to his old round Breeches.
   • […] letters sadly penn’d in blood, With sleided silk feat and affectedly Enswathed, and seal'd to curious secrecy. 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
3. (obsolete) With intention, intentionally, deliberately.
   • I have affectedly made use of this measure here […] because, I think, it would be of general convenience, that this should be the common measure in the Commonwealth of Letters. 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 10, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 314:
   • […] the Excelsi or high places mentioned in the sacred Story, wherein the Heathen performed idolatrous rites unto their Idols, were commonly groves, affectedly sited upon some mountainous place, without any House or Temple. 1655, Inigo Jones, The Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain, Vulgarly Called Stone-Heng on Salisbury Plain Restored, London: Daniel Pakeman, page 10:

Forms

Relateds

affectation · affect

Translations (6)

de blasiert (in an affected manner) · de gekünstelt (in an affected manner) · de prätentiös (in an affected manner) · de affektiert (in an affected manner) · pt afetadamente (in an affected manner) · pl afektowanie (in an affected manner)