afford

verb

Etymology: From Middle English afforthen, aforthen, avorthien, from earlier iforthen, iforthien, ȝeforthien, from Old English forþian, ġeforþian (“to further, accomplish, afford”), from Proto-Germanic *furþōną, from Proto-Germanic *furþą (“forth, forward”), equivalent to a- + forth. Cognate with Old Norse forða (“to forward oneself, save oneself, escape danger”), Icelandic forða (“to save, rescue”).

1. To incur, stand, or bear without serious detriment, as an act which might under other circumstances be injurious; (usually after an expression of ability, as could, able, difficult) to be able or rich enough; to spare.

   “I think we can afford the extra hour it will take.  We can only afford to buy a small car at the moment.”

   ““[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?[…]””

2. To offer, provide, or supply, as in selling, granting or expending, with profit, or without too great a loss.

   “Alfred affords his goods cheaper than Bantock.”

3. To give forth; to supply, yield, or produce as the natural result, fruit, or issue.

   “Grapes afford wine.  Olives afford oil.  The earth affords fruit.  The sea affords an abundant supply of fish.”

   “The percentage of nutritive elements contained in the parsnip is very small; so small, indeed, that one pound of parsnips affords hardly one fifth of an ounce of nitrogenous or muscle-forming material.”

4. To give, grant, or confer, with a remoter reference to its being the natural result; to provide; to furnish.

   “A good life affords consolation in old age.”

   “One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.”