The bond or tie of affection.
The bond or tie of affection — affectionate regard and fidelity toward a person, place, or cause; in psychology, an enduring emotional bond.
Names the bond or connection itself rather than a heat of feeling — relational and structural. Calmer and steadier than love, passion, adoration, or infatuation; near fondness and affection in intensity but adding the idea of an enduring tie or dependence. Unlike admiration (esteem for qualities) it is not evaluative; unlike infatuation, it implies a settled, lasting connection rather than folly. Uniquely, it is also a technical psychology term (attachment theory).
An affectionate regard, fondness, or fidelity toward a person, place, or cause.
This emotional sense is recorded from 1704; the original English sense was legal (“seizure by judicial process”).
A deep, enduring emotional bond — especially the infant–caregiver bond seen as a basis for healthy development.
A 20th-century framework originated by John Bowlby and elaborated by Mary Ainsworth (the “Strange Situation”).
c. 1400, originally “arrest by judicial warrant,” from Old French attacher “to attach.” The “affectionate bond” sense is from 1704; the “thing fastened to another” sense (now common for email) from 1797.
A clear broadening: from a legal “seizure/arrest” sense to the emotional “affectionate bond” (1704) to the concrete “thing fastened on” (1797). The clinical psychological sense is a distinct mid-to-late-20th-century development via Bowlby and Ainsworth — the one sourced recent-generation shift in this cluster.