affectation

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)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 ...”

   “[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 delicacy.”

2. (countable, uncountable)An unusual mannerism.
3. (countable, rare, uncountable, with-of)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 enforc’d, and form’d auſteritie) / I could be willing to enioy no place / With ſo vnequall natures.”

   “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.”

   “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 1633: 78), and above all pedantry from women, are far more unacceptable.”