Afficior

Afficior is a third‑person singular deponent verb from Latin, meaning “to be brought to,” “to be affected,” or “to become.” Unlike regular active verbs, deponents have passive forms but active meanings, so afficior is conjugated with passive endings while retaining an active sense. The principal parts are affīcior, affīcī, affīcītum, with a long ī in the stem. It belongs to the fourth conjugation and follows the pattern of other deponent verbs such as veror (“to fear”) and sequor (“to follow”).

In classical literature, afficior appears in a variety of contexts, often describing a state that has been imposed upon a person or thing. For example, Caesar writes “ex sua praeditione afficior” (“I am affected by my own surrender”), while Cicero uses the verb to express moral influence: “sui timorem afficior” (“I am affected by my own fear”). The verb can be used transitively in the sense of “to affect” or intransitively as “to become affected,” and it frequently takes an ablative of agent or cause.

Grammatically, afficior forms a passive‑voice paradigm: present affīcior, imperfect affīcēbamur, future affīcētor, perfect affīcītus sum, pluperfect affīcītus eram, future perfect affīcītus erō. The participle affīcītum functions as an adjective meaning “affected” or “affected by.” In later Latin and Romance languages, derivatives of afficior gave rise to verbs such as Italian “afficere” (to affect) and French “affecter.” Its usage declined after the Imperial period, but the term remains of interest for scholars of Latin syntax and deponent verb patterns.