Affecteth

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Expresses an old-fashioned form meaning to influence or produce a change in something
2. Used as a historical or literary term for acting upon or altering a condition or state
3. Represents a verb form once common for describing the action of impacting or modifying something

Etymology: "Affecteth" is an archaic third-person singular present form of "affect", built by adding the old ending "-eth" to the verb. That ending descends from Old English "-aþ", which in turn goes back to a Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic "-ōþi", so the suffix is native to English rather than borrowed. It was the standard way to write "he, she or it affects" in earlier centuries, and it survived mainly in the King James Bible and other older religious and literary texts before falling out of use. The verb "affect" itself came into English from Latin "afficere", "to act upon", combining "ad-" (toward) with "facere" (to make or do), so the root idea is literally doing something to something. The "-eth" form simply attaches to that verb in the old way, so the word tells you nothing new about "affect" beyond its grammatical dress.