affiance meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

affiance

verb

/əˈfaɪ.əns/

Etymology From Middle French affiance, from affier (from Medieval Latin affīdāre, from *fīdāre, from Latin fīdere) + -ance.

To be betrothed to; to promise to marry.

[S]he had expected the worst ever since Drusilla had deliberately tried to unsex herself by refusing to feel any natural grief at the death in battle not only of her affianced husband but of her own father [...]1935 April, William Faulkner, “Skirmish at Sartoris”, in The Unvanquished, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1938, →OCLC; republished in The Unvanquished: The Corrected Text, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, October 1991, →ISBN, section 1, page 189:
She left our former teacher at the altar. Oh well, it's no secret that Prissy was affianced to our former teacher, but justifiably fled the wedding.2018 July 6, Moira Walley-Beckett, “What We have been Makes Us what We are” (07:00 from the start), in Anne with an E, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Anne Shirley-Cuthbert (Amybeth McNulty):

noun

Etymology From Middle French affiance, from affier (from Medieval Latin affīdāre, from *fīdāre, from Latin fīdere) + -ance.

Faith, trust.

[…] in syr Launcelot & you I moost had my Ioye / & myn affyaunce / & now haue I lost my Ioye of you bothe […] […] "in Sir Launcelot and you I most had my joy, and mine affiance, and now have I lost my joy of you both" […]1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XXI, Chapter ii, leaf 421r:
All other outward shewes and exterior apparences are common to all religions: As hope, affiance [translating confiance], events, ceremonies, penitence and martyrdome.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

2 more examples

Such feelings promptly yielded to his habitual affiance in the divine love.1849, James Stephen, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography:
Lancelot, my Lancelot, thou in whom I have / Most joy and most affiance, […]1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 218:

Archaic A solemn engagement, especially a pledge of marriage.

I that Ladie to my spouse had wonne; / Accord of friends, consent of parents sought, / Affiance made, my happinesse begonne […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: