affectation

Noun

1. An attempt to assume or exhibit what is not natural or real; false display; artificial show.
   • This poem is strongly tinctured with those pedantic affectations concerning the passion of love ... - 1810, Dr. Samuel Johnson, “Life of Gower”, in The Works of the English Poets, Digitized edition, published 2009:
   • [T]hey were not the spoiled children of affectation and refinement, but a bold, vigorous, independent race of thinkers, with prodigious strength and energy, with none but natural grace, and heartfelt unobtrusive...
2. An unusual mannerism.
3. An ostentatious fondness for something.
   • The grace diuineſt Mercvrie hath done me, / In this vouchſafde diſcouerie of himſelfe, / Binds my obſeruance in the vtmoſt terme / Of ſatisfaction, to his godly will: / Though I profeſſe (without the affectation / Of an...
   • Her upper part of decent diſcipline / Shew’d affecation of an ancient line: / And fathers, councils, church and churches head, / Were on her reverend Phylacteries read. - 1687, [John Dryden], “[The First Part]”, in The...
   • While for some, women’s lack of knowledge is a matter for censure, throughout the century both male and female writers emphasize that affectation of knowledge, for example when it is not properly assimilated (Du Bosc...