| 释义 |
affinity|əˈfɪnɪtɪ|
Forms: 4–5 afinite, 4–6 affinite, affynyte, affynite, 5–6 affynytye, affinyte, affynitie, affinytye, affynytie, 6–7 affinitie, 6– affinity.
[a. Fr. afinité, affinité, ad. L. affīnitāt-em, n. of state f. affīn-is: see affine n.]
I. Affinity by position.
1. a. Relationship by marriage; opposed to consanguinity. Hence collect. Relations by marriage.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Sinne 7379 Or ȝyf he wyþ a womman synne Þat sum of hys kyn haþ endyde ynne..He calleþ hyt an affynyte. c1315Shoreham 70 Alle here sybbe affinitè. 1483Caxton G. de la Tour C viij b, Be he of his parente his affynyte or other. 1509Fisher Wks. 1876, 293 What by lygnage what by affinite she had xxx. kinges & quenes within the iiii. degre of maryage vnto her. 1649Selden Laws Eng. i. lv. (1739) 98 Many.. that by affinity and consanguinity were become English-men. 1726Ayliffe Parergon 326 Affinity is a Civil Bond of Persons, that are ally'd unto each other by Marriage or Espousals. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 172 He was closely related by affinity to the royal house. His daughter had become, by a secret marriage, Duchess of York.
b. In R.C. Ch.: The spiritual relationship between sponsors and their godchild, or between the sponsors themselves, called in older English gossip-red (cf. kin-red).
c1440Relig. Pieces fr. Thornton MS. (1867) 13 His sybb frendes or any oþer þat es of his affynyte gastely or bodyly. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., The Romanists talk of a spiritual Affinity, contracted by the sacrament of baptism and confirmation. 1872Freeman Hist. Ess. (ed. 2) 23 When he has succeeded in placing the bar of spiritual affinity between the King and his wife.
2. Relationship or kinship generally between individuals or races. collect. Relations, kindred.
1382Wyclif Ruth iii. 13 If he wole take thee bi riȝt of affynyte the thing is wel doo. 1440J. Shirley Dethe of K. James (1818) 7 With many other of thare afinite. 1494Fabyan iv. lxx. 49 He therfore with helpe of his affynyte and frendes, withstode the Romaynes. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. ix. 47 The great Identitie, or at least, Affinitie that was betwixt the old Britains, and Gauls. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. III. xxxii. 316 The labour of individuals..weaves into one web the affinity and brotherhood of mankind. 1872Yeats Growth & Viciss. Comm. 37 The affinities of the people which connected them..with the Semitic races of Arabia.
3. Philol. Structural resemblance between languages arising from and proving their origin from a common stock.
1599Thynne Animadv. (1865) 66 The latyne, frenche, and spanyshe haue no doble W, as the Dutche, the Englishe, and suche as have affynytye with the Dutche. 1659Pearson Creed (1839) 245 We know the affinity of the Punic tongue with the Hebrew. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 80 Between some of these languages, there is indeed a great affinity. 1859Jephson Brittany xx. 313 To trace the affinities of words in different languages.
4. Nat. Hist. Structural resemblance between different animals, plants, or minerals, suggesting modifications of one primary type, or (in the case of the two former) gradual differentiation from a common stock.
1794Sullivan View of Nat. I. 458 Thus we shall find that antimony has an affinity with tin. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. (1875) II. iii. xxxiv. 250 The species are arranged..with due regard to their natural affinities. 1862Darwin Orchids iii. 115 In the shape of the labellum we see the affinity of Goodyera to Epipactis. 1872Nicholson Palæont. 353 The true Reptiles and the Birds..are nevertheless related to one another by various points of affinity.
5. fig. Causal relationship or connexion (as flowing the one from the other, or having a common source), or such agreement or similarity of nature or character as might result from such relationship if it existed; family likeness.
1533Elyot Castel of Helth (1541) 35 By reason of the affinitie whiche it hath with mylke, whay is convertible in to bloude and fleshe. 1540Morysine tr. Vives Introd. Wysdome C iiij, Vyces and their affynities, as foolyshnes, ignorancy, amased dulnesse. 1642R. Carpenter Experience iii. v. 46 What is the reason that Grace hath such marvellous affinity with Glory? 1795Mason Ch. Mus. i. 76 The sound of every individual instrument bears a perfect affinity with the rest. 1855H. Reed Lect. Eng. Lit. ii. (1878) 74 Philosophy and poetry are for ever disclosing affinities with each other. 1861Tulloch Eng. Purit. iv. 421 This spiritual affinity between Luther and Bunyan is very striking.
†6. Neighbourhood, vicinity. [OFr. afinité.] Obs.
1678R. Russell tr. Geber iv. ii. 242 The third Property is Affinity (or Vicinity) between the Elixir and the Body to be transmuted. 1770Hasted in Phil. Trans. LXI. 161 Some kinds of wood..decay by the near affinity of others.
II. Affinity by inclination or attraction.
†7. Voluntary social relationship; companionship, alliance, association. Obs.
1494Fabyan v. ciii. 78 Gonobalde..promysed ayde to his power. Lotharius, of this affynyte beyng warned, pursued the sayde Conobalde. 1580North Plutarch (1676) 4 That so many good men would have had affinity with so naughty and wicked a man. 1611Bible 2 Chron. xviii. 1 Now Jehosaphat..ioyned affinitie with Ahab.
8. Hence fig. A natural friendliness, liking, or attractiveness; an attraction drawing to anything.
1616Surflet & Markh. Countrey Farme 322 For this dung, by a certaine affinitie, is gratefull and well liked of Bees. 1652French Yorksh. Spa viii. 71 With this hath the spirit of the Spaw water great affinity. 1832H. Martineau Each & All iv. 61 Natural affinities are ever acting, even now, in opposition to circumstance. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea ii. §70 So sharp is the line, and such the want of affinity between those waters.
9. esp. Chemical attraction; the tendency which certain elementary substances or their compounds have to unite with other elements and form new compounds.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., M. Geoffroy has given [in 1718] a table of the different degrees of affinity between most of the bodies employed in chemistry. 1782Kirwan in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 35 Chymical affinity or attraction is that power by which the invisible particles of different bodies intermix and unite with each other so intimately as to be inseparable by mere mechanical means. 1831T. P. Jones Convers. Chem. i. 22 Elective affinity, or elective attraction, you will find spoken of in every work upon chemistry. c1860Faraday Forces of Nat. iii. 93 This new attraction we call chemical affinity, or the force of chemical action between different bodies.
10. A psychical or spiritual attraction believed by some sects to exist between persons; sometimes applied concretely to the subjects or objects of the ‘affinity.’
1868Dixon Spir. Wives I. 99 All these Spiritualists accept the doctrine of special affinities between man and woman; affinities which imply a spiritual relation of the sexes higher and holier than that of marriage. Ibid. II. 204 Such natures as, on coming near, lay hold of each other, and modify each other, we call affinities.
III. Special Comb. affinity group U.S., a group or association of people sharing a common purpose or interest; spec. one allowed certain privileges when chartering an aeroplane.
1970Hearings Subcomm. Transportation of Comm. Interstate & Foreign Commerce (91st. U.S. Congress 2 Sess.) 8 Legitimate *affinity groups, the American Legion, the American Bar Association, the Knights of Columbus [etc.]. 1976Time 19 Jan. 62 No longer does the traveler have to belong to a so-called affinity group, such as a club or union, to qualify for the reduced rates. 1984Amer. Banker 22 June 4 Insurance companies increasingly look to third-party channels for marketing their products. They include sponsored markets, such as employers and associations; affinity groups in banks and real estate enterprises; [etc.].
Add:[III.] affinity (credit) card (orig. U.S.), (a) a credit card available to members of a particular affinity group and entitling them to a range of discounts and other benefits; (b) a credit card whose issuer donates a proportion of the money spent through use of the card to a particular charity or other organization.
1979Amer. Banker 13 June 7/4 Mr. Shelton argues, on the other hand, that the *affinity card concept is being made available to hundreds of public organizations. 1986N.Y. Times 9 Aug. 31/1 [He] said that added pressures on the big banks were coming from new affinity cards—those issued by banks through voluntary associations. 1988Which? Dec. 560/2 While these ‘affinity’ credit cards may be a good way of giving to charity, there are cheaper credit cards around. 1991National Trust Mag. Spring 9/1 Only six months after the launch of the affinity card in April last year, the Trust and Midland Bank announced that over 36,000 National Trust Visa cards were in circulation. 1993Canad. Living (Toronto) Sept. 23/2 In Ontario,..Dominion, Ultra Mart and Miracle Mart..are providing shoppers with ‘affinity’ or ‘loyalty’ cards, which, when scanned through computerized checkouts deduct savings on advertised specials.
affinity chromatography Biochem., a form of chromatography which utilizes the tendency of some molecules in solution to bind specifically to immobilized ligands.
1968P. Cuatrecasas et al. in Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. LXI. 636 In *affinity chromatography, the enzyme to be purified is passed through a column containing a cross-linked polymer or gel to which a specific competitive inhibitor of the enzyme has been covalently attached. 1975Nature 3 Apr. 441/2 Affinity chromatography..has been used extensively in the purification of soluble proteins. 1990EMBO Jrnl. IX. 3938/1 We were unable to separate individual BPc species further by heating, non-denaturing gel filtration, ion exchange chromatography or lectin affinity chromatography.
affinity labelling Biochem., a technique for labelling molecules, esp. enzymes or antibodies, at their active site; cf. photoaffinity s.v. photo- 1.
1962L. Wofsy et al. in Biochemistry I. 1031 A general method, termed *affinity labeling, is proposed to achieve the labeling of the active sites of antibody and enzyme molecules. 1981L. Stryer Biochem. (ed. 2) viii. 162 The importance of a second residue in catalysis was shown by affinity-labeling studies. 1988P. W. Kuchel et al. Schaum's Outl. Theory + Probl. Biochem. ix. 281 The technique of affinity labeling is widely used to establish the nature of the amino acid residues in the active site of an enzyme. |