afect

Afect is a term used in several languages to denote emotion or emotional state, closely aligned with the English term affect. The exact sense varies by language, but it commonly appears in medical, psychological, and scholarly contexts. In everyday speech it can also refer to affection or fondness, depending on the language.

In psychology and psychiatry, affect describes the outward expression of emotion, observable in facial expression, voice, and gesture. It is distinguished from mood, which is a person’s internal, longer-lasting emotional state. Clinicians describe affect using terms such as broad, constricted, blunted, flat, labile, or incongruent with the stated mood.

Etymology and cross-linguistic use: the word derives from Latin affectus and has spread into multiple languages with related senses. In Romanian, afect denotes emotion or affect and appears in clinical phrases dealing with emotional life. In Polish, afekt is used similarly and appears in both everyday and medical language. In everyday usage, some languages have related terms that mean affection or fondness in interpersonal relationships, which are distinct from the clinical concept of affect.

In scholarly and clinical writing, afect is typically treated as the construct of affect rather than a synonym for mood or affection alone. Researchers study how affect changes across psychiatric and neurological conditions, and how it relates to social behavior, communication, and quality of life.