From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia.
The word affinity
(Lat. affinitas, relationship by
marriage, from affinis, bordering
on, related to; finis, border,
boundary) bears several meanings.
Law
In law and in cultural
anthropology, affinity,
as distinguished from
consanguinity, is kinship by
marriage. It is the relation
which each party to a marriage,
the
husband and
wife, bears to the kindred of
the other. Affinity is usually
described as of three kinds. (1)
Direct: that relationship which
subsists between the husband and
his wife's relations by
blood or between the wife and
the husband's relations by blood.
The marriage having made them one
person, the blood relations of
each are held as related by
affinity in the same degree to the
one spouse as by consanguinity to
the other. But the relation is
only with the married parties
themselves, and does not bring
those in affinity with them in
affinity with each other; so a
wife's sister has no affinity to
her husband's brother. This is
secondary affinity.
Collateral affinity is the
relationship subsisting between
the husband and the relations of
his wife's relations.
The subject is chiefly
important from the matrimonial
prohibitions by which the
canon law has restricted
relations by affinity. Taking the
table of degrees within which
marriage is prohibited on account
of consanguinity, the rule has
been thus extended to affinity, so
that wherever relationship to a
man himself would be a bar to
marriage, relationship to his
deceased wife will be the same
bar, and vice versa on the
husband's decease. See
affinity (canon law) for more
discussion.
Briefly, direct affinity is a
bar to marriage. This rule has
been founded chiefly on
interpretations of the eighteenth
chapter of Leviticus. Formerly by
law in
England, marriages within the
degrees of affinity were not
absolutely null, but they were
liable to be annulled by
ecclesiastical process during the
lives of both parties; in other
words, the incapacity was only a
canonical, not a civil,
disability. By the Marriage Act
1835 all marriages of this
kind not disputed before the
passing of the act were declared
absolutely valid, while all
subsequent to it were declared
null. This rendered null in
England, and not merely voidable,
a marriage with a deceased wife's
sister or niece. (See
consanguinity,
marriage.)
This article incorporates
text from the
1911 Encyclopędia Britannica,
which is in the
public domain.
Life sciences
Biology
In
biology, affinity is a
relationship between
species that may share a
common
origin.
Immunology
In
immunology, affinity is
the
selective
attraction between an
antibody and an
antigen.
Mathematics
Occasionally,
mathematicians may use the
word affinity to
mean the property of being
affine.
Chemistry
In
chemistry the term affinity
is used with the meaning of
reactivity, referring to the
relative
stability of the
product(s) from a certain
reaction or
process. It is also seen as an
attractive force between two
particles. An example is
electron affinity. Affinity of
one chemical to another is
measured quantitatively by an
equilibrium constant of the
bound and nonbound form.
Engineering
In
engineering, affinity laws
describe the relationship between
turbomachinery's geometry and
speed with performance, and is a
subtopic of
similitude.
Christianity
In the
United Kingdom,
Affinity is the name for the
Christian organisation formerly
called the British Evangelical
Council. See external link
Affinity | "Church-centred
Partnership for Bible-centred
Christianity".
