affectation

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Artificiality of manner

Nouns

1. (affected quality) affectation, affectedness, artificiality, insincerity, histrionics, ostentation; charlatanism, quackery (See deception); pretense, gloss, veneer, facade, false show or front; pose, pretension, airs; false modesty; pedantry, euphuism; preciosity, preciousness; conceit; foppery, dandyism, coxcombry, stiffness, formality; mannerism, character trait, quirk, idiosyncrasy; prudery, prissiness, coquetry, puritanism, sanctimony; posing, posturing; crocodile tears, prunes and prisms. Informal, trademark. Slang, side; phoniness, put-on. See falsehood.

2. (affected person) fop, coxcomb, dandy, beau, popinjay, blade, sport; attitudinarian; poser, poseur, pretender, hypocrite; faker, sham, pedant, bluestocking, prude, prig, puritan; charlatan, deceiver; whited sepulcher. Informal, nice Nelly, Adonis. Slang, dude, macaroni; chalker, cookie, frosty; drugstore cowboy; choirboy; straw man; phony, fraud, fake.

Verbs — affect, act, put on or give oneself airs, feign, sham; simper, mince; attitudinize, pose, posture, assume or strike an attitude, put up or on a front; make [out] like; overact, dramatize. Informal, fake, playact, camp it up.

Adjectives — affected, pretentious, artificial, insincere, pedantic, stilted, stagy, theatrical, sham, histrionic; unnatural, self-conscious, stiff, starchy, formal, prim, smug, prudish, priggish, puritanical, sanctimonious; foppish, dandified; overmodest; precious, mannered, mincing, namby-pamby; glib, butter wouldn't melt in one's mouth, holier than thou. Informal, phony, fake; art[s]y, hinkty, plastic; tight as a drum, goat or tick.

Adverbs — affectedly, prudishly, etc.; for show or effect.

Quotations — Methinks he doth protest too much (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, See simpleness, modesty, probity.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. pose, mannerism, simulation; see pose , pretense 1 , 2 .

See Synonym Study at pose .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) (VOCABULARY WORD) n.

[AF ek TAY shun]

phony or unnatural behavior, often displayed in an attempt to impress.

His cultured speech was only an affectation.

SYN.: pretense, pretentiousness, fraud, airs, show, performance, display, *going Hollywood, act, pose, posture, mannerism, studied manner, *Oscar performance.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun Artificial behavior adopted to impress others: affectedness, air (used in plural), mannerism, pose, pretense. See HONEST, TRUE.