Af*fin"i*ty (&?;), n.; pl.
Affinities(&?;). [OF. afinité, F.
affinité, L. affinites, fr. affinis. See
Affined.]
1. 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.
2. 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 highe&?; 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.
