afflict means to cause (someone) pain, suffering or distress. It carries an Arena rating of 1628, earned across 12 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, afflict ranks #807 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #977 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,160 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,012 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
afflict is pronounced /əˈflɪkt/.
Why “afflict” is a great word
To cause persistent pain, suffering, or distress. From Middle English afflicten, from Latin afflictāre, frequentative of affligere ("to strike down, damage"), from ad- ("to") + flīgere ("to strike"). Unlike "inflict," which concerns an agent's decisive imposition, or "affect," a neutral or fleeting influence, to afflict is to consign to an enduring state of ruin. It is the chronic ache that outlasts the wound, the sorrow that becomes a tenant in the bones, and the quiet, unremitting tyranny of a malady that makes a prison of the body—a testament to how a moment's strike can be transmuted into a lifetime's weight.
Etymology
From Middle English afflicten (attested in past participle afflicte), from Latin afflīctō (“to damage, harass, torment”), from ad- + flīctus, past participle of afflīgō (“strike, beat”), from ad- + flīgō (“strike”) (whence af-).
verb
- To cause (someone) pain, suffering or distress.
- To strike or cast down; to overthrow; to result.e.g.“reassembling our afflicted powers” — 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as
- To make low or humble.e.g.“The Argument of mine afflicted stile” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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