Affectionately

How to spell affectionately

14 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce affectionately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does affectionately mean?

1. adverbIn a way that shows tender fondness or warm feeling toward someone or something.

Affectionately in a sentence

• She signed the birthday card affectionately before posting it to her brother.

• The old dog leaned affectionately against his owner's leg.

Where does affectionately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word reaches back to the Latin verb afficere, which meant 'to do something to' or 'to influence', formed from ad ('toward') and facere ('to do or make'). From its past participle came the noun affectio, describing a disposition or state of mind that something had been put into, and by extension a settled feeling of fondness. English absorbed 'affection' through Old French during the 1200s and 1300s, where it carried the warm sense of tender attachment we still use today. The adjective 'affectionate' was built on it by the 1500s, and the adverb 'affectionately' simply adds the familiar -ly ending to describe an action done with fondness. The spelling trap lives in the hidden double 'f' and the soft -tion- that sounds like 'shun', plus the quiet -ate- syllable that almost disappears in speech, so writers often drop a letter without noticing.

How the word is built

• af- (variant of ad-: toward)
• fect (from facere: to do or make)
• -ion (state)
• -ate (adjective)
• -ly (adverb)