affairen.
/əˈfɛː/, U.S. /əˈfɛ(ə)r/ = affair n. 3a.With quot. 1845, cf. affaire de cœur n.In quot. 1940 with postmodifying noun, imitating French word order.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > love affair > [noun]
ménagea1393
amour1567
concern1691
affair1700
gallantry1707
arrangement1750
affaire de cœur1781
romance1844
affaire1845
love affair1867
walkout1934
relationship1944
1845 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 6 Apr. (1954) I. 185 My unfortunate ‘affaire’ did not become one ‘du coeur’.
1888 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Oct. 556 You know he had an affaire? It was that which brought him abroad.
1908 ‘I. Hay’ Right Stuff ii. 28 In either case the affaire terminates then and there.
1940 M. Dickens Mariana iv. 93 The affaire Goss was only something to add a spice to school life, and did not affect in any way her love for him.
1958 A. Wilson Middle Age of Mrs Eliot ii. 271 It would be so awful to have one of those office affaires that they have in the women's mags.
2002 M. Holroyd Wks. on Paper 40 He met and fell in love with a tall, dark actress, Gladys Gardner, with whom, as ‘a prudent preliminary’ to marriage, he had an affaire.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1845