the.com/affliction
Pain that moved in, paid rent, and started calling itself your personality.
means A condition of ongoing pain, illness, or distress that burdens a person over time.
from From Latin affligere, 'to strike or dash down' — from ad- ('to, against') plus fligere ('to strike'). The same fligere root shows up, possibly related, in 'conflict' (striking together) and 'profligate' (struck down, cast away). So an affliction was originally something that knocked you down, before it settled in and unpacked its bags.
- word root
- latin affligere, to dash against something
- grammar tell
- always singular when it means chronic suffering
- biblical usage
- job's afflictions got a whole book
- modern twist
- often outlives the thing that caused it