| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| affair |
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| SYLLABICATION: | af·fair |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   -fâr |
| NOUN: | 1. Something done or to be done; business. 2. affairs Transactions and other matters of professional or public business: affairs of state. 3a. An occurrence, event, or matter: The senator's death was a tragic affair. b. A social function. 4. An object or a contrivance: Their first car was a ramshackle affair. 5. A matter of personal concern. 6. affairs Personal business: get one's affairs in order. 7. A matter causing public scandal and controversy: the Dreyfus affair. 8. A romantic and sexual relationship, sometimes one of brief duration, between two people who are not married to each other. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English affaire, from Old French afaire, from a faire, to do : a, to (from Latin ad; see ad–) + faire, to do (from facere; see dh - in Appendix I). | | SYNONYMS: | affair, business, concern, lookout These nouns denote something that involves one personally: I won't comment on that; it's not my affair. That's none of your business. Mind your own concerns. It's your lookout to file your application on time.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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