affliction

From Middle English affliction, affliccioun, from Old French afliction, borrowed from Latin afflīctiōnem, from affligere, whence English afflict.

• IPA^(key): /əˈflɪkʃən/

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• Hyphenation: af‧flic‧tion

affliction (countable and uncountable, plural afflictions)

1. A state of pain, suffering, distress or agony.
   • 1781, [Mostyn John Armstrong], History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk. Volume IX. Containing the Hundreds of Smithdon, Taverham, Tunstead, Walsham, and Wayland, volume IX, Norwich: Printed by J. Crouse, for M. Booth, bookseller, →OCLC, page 51:

     BEAT on, proud billows; Boreas blow; / Swell, curled waves, high as Jove's roof; / Your incivility doth ſhow, / That innocence is tempeſt proof; / Though ſurly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; / Then ſtrike, Affliction, for thy wounds are balm. [Attributed to Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704).]

2. Something which causes pain, suffering, distress or agony.
   • 1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!:

     She wore a man's long ulster (not as if it were an affliction, but as if it were very comfortable and belonged to her; carried it like a young soldier) [...]

Inherited from Old French afliction, borrowed from Latin afflīctiōnem.

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affliction f (plural afflictions)

1. (countable and uncountable) affliction

• “affliction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.