The Collaborative International Dictionary
Affinity \Af*fin"i*ty\, n.; pl. Affinities. [OF. afinit['e], F. affinit['e], L. affinites, fr. affinis. See Affined.]
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Relationship by marriage (as between a husband and his wife's blood relations, or between a wife and her husband's blood relations); -- in contradistinction to consanguinity, or relationship by blood; -- followed by with, to, or between.
Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh.
--1 Kings iii. 1. -
Kinship generally; close agreement; relation; conformity; resemblance; connection; as, the affinity of sounds, of colors, or of languages.
There is a close affinity between imposture and credulity.
--Sir G. C. Lewis.2. Companionship; acquaintance. [Obs.]
About forty years past, I began a happy affinity with William Cranmer.
--Burton.4. (Chem.) That attraction which takes place, at an insensible distance, between the heterogeneous particles of bodies, and unites them to form chemical compounds; chemism; chemical or elective affinity or attraction.
5. (Nat. Hist.) A relation between species or higher groups dependent on resemblance in the whole plan of structure, and indicating community of origin.
6. (Spiritualism) A superior spiritual relationship or attraction held to exist sometimes between persons, esp. persons of the opposite sex; also, the man or woman who exerts such psychical or spiritual attraction.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of affinity English)
Wikipedia
Affinities under bastard feudalism were collectives of gentry who follow and support a particular nobleman. Gentry members of affinities gave loyalty to their nobleman above loyalty to the king. Affinities were an integral part of the organization of society in England and Wales during the 15th century.
Usage examples of "affinities".
As we here and there see a thin straggling branch springing from a fork low down in a tree, and which by some chance has been favoured and is still alive on its summit, so we occasionally see an animal like the Ornithorhynchus or Lepidosiren, which in some small degree connects by its affinities two large branches of life, and which has apparently been saved from fatal competition by having inhabited a protected station.
Duckweed Dugong, affinities of Dung-beetles with deficient tarsi Dyticus Earl, Mr.
It would be most difficult to give any rational explanation of the affinities of the blind cave-animals to the other inhabitants of the two continents on the ordinary view of their independent creation.
Notwithstanding such modifications, we might expect still to see in the cave-animals of America, affinities to the other inhabitants of that continent, and in those of Europe, to the inhabitants of the European continent.
As it is difficult to show the blood-relationship between the numerous kindred of any ancient and noble family, even by the aid of a genealogical tree, and almost impossible to do this without this aid, we can understand the extraordinary difficulty which naturalists have experienced in describing, without the aid of a diagram, the various affinities which they perceive between the many living and extinct members of the same great natural class.
In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species.
Chapter X On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings On the slow and successive appearance of new species -- On their different rates of change -- Species once lost do not reappear -- Groups of species follow the same general rules in their appearance and disappearance as do single species -- On Extinction -- On simultaneous changes in the forms of life throughout the world -- On the affinities of extinct species to each other and to living species -- On the state of development of ancient forms -- On the succession of the same types within the same areas -- Summary of preceding and present chapters.
We can understand, on these views, the very important distinction between real affinities and analogical or adaptive resemblances.
Chapter XIII Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs Classification, groups subordinate to groups -- Natural system -- Rules and difficulties in classification, explained on the theory of descent with modification -- Classification of varieties -- Descent always used in classification -- Analogical or adaptive characters -- Affinities, general, complex and radiating -- Extinction separates and defines groups -- Morphology, between members of the same class, between parts of the same individual -- Embryology, laws of, explained by variations not supervening at an early age, and being inherited at a corresponding age -- Rudimentary Organs.
In this case, its affinities to the other fourteen new species will be of a curious and circuitous nature.
We shall, when we come to our chapter on Geology, have to refer again to this subject, and I think we shall then see that the diagram throws light on the affinities of extinct beings, which, though generally belonging to the same orders, or families, or genera, with those now living, yet are often, in some degree, intermediate in character between existing groups.
On these principles, I believe, the nature of the affinities of all organic beings may be explained.
The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree.
American and European caverns, close similarity in their organisation and affinities might have been expected.
On the Affinities of extinct Species to each other, and to living forms.