Gentle, warm, settled fondness and caring.
Gentle, warm, settled fondness and caring — calmer and less intense than love.
A mild, settled warmth of liking and care, free of the romantic passion or sexual charge that love can carry — the sort of tender leaning or partiality we hold toward someone over time. Its object is usually a person or animal, and it suggests warmth that has grown gradually rather than flared up. It is one strand of love but lacks love's depth and reach. Very near fondness, though it tilts a touch more toward people and tender regard, where fondness fastens just as easily onto things.
c. 1200 “desire, inclination,” from Latin affectionem “a disposition, frame of mind,” from afficere “to act on, influence” (ad- “to” + facere “to do”).
Developed from “disposition” to “zealous attachment”; the “tender liking” sense emerged in English in the late 14c. Once carried now-obsolete senses (“partiality, prejudice”) and still has a medical sense (“a pulmonary affection”). Not to be confused with affectation (pretense). No reliable recent-generation shift.