affiance

English

Alternative forms

• affiaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French affiance, from affier (from (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  affīdāre, from *fīdāre, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin fīdere) + -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈfaɪəns/
• Rhymes: -aɪəns

Verb

affiance (third-person singular simple present affianc, present participle ing, simple past and past participle affianced)

1. (transitive) To be betrothed to; to promise to marry.
   • 1935 April, William Faulkner, “Skirmish at Sartoris”, in The Unvanquished, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1938, →OCLC; republished in The Unvanquished: The Corrected Text, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, October 1991, →ISBN, section 1, page 189:

     [S]he had expected the worst ever since Drusilla had deliberately tried to unsex herself by refusing to feel any natural grief at the death in battle not only of her affianced husband but of her own father [...]

   • 2018 July 6, Moira Walley-Beckett, “What We have been Makes Us what We are” (07:00 from the start), in Anne with an E, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Anne Shirley-Cuthbert (Amybeth McNulty):

     She left our former teacher at the altar. Oh well, it's no secret that Prissy was affianced to our former teacher, but justifiably fled the wedding.

See also

• fiance

Translations

to be betrothed to

• Bulgarian: вричам се, сгодявам се
• Finnish: olla kihloissa
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Interlingue:
• Russian: обруча́ться (ru) impf (obručátʹsja), обручи́ться (ru) pf (obručítʹsja)

Noun

affiance (plural affiances)

1. Faith, trust.
   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
   • Sir J. Stephen

     Such feelings promptly yielded to his habitual affiance in the divine love.

   • Tennyson

     Lancelot, my Lancelot, thou in whom I have / Most joy and most affiance.

2. (archaic) A solemn engagement, especially a pledge of marriage.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iv:

     I that Ladie to my spouse had wonne; / Accord of friends, consent of parents sought, / Affiance made, my happinesse begonne […].

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Middle French

Etymology

Old French afiance, from afier (“to promise”) +‎ -ance.

Noun

affiance f (plural affiances)

1. promise (verbal guarantee)

Descendants

• → English: affiance

References

• affiance on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)