In an answer I wrote:
- sources of insomnia: improper food, some (yet) undetected illness / disease / affection, accumulated stress, some strong expectations about the (near) future, love, …
and in exchange I received a comment:
"sources of insomnia: [..] affection" Hehe I think you meant affliction
Of course, I used "affection" with the meaning of "state of illness".
A search reveals that "affection" might be archaic, but not all sources share this information / belief.
On the other hand, I am not very familiar with "affliction", so I am hesitant to use it.
So my question (to native speakers) is: which one of them fits better? Which one is more common in every-day language? Of course, they might also be totally interchangeable, but I do not know.
Best Answer
"Affection" meaning a state of illness is archaic. That means that it should not be used in that sense in standard current English (though you might need to know it if you are reading old books). The principal modern meaning of "affection" is "a feeling of fondness" (definitions from google). Your sentence seems to say "Insomnia can be caused by having fondness for people" which is not what you meant.
On the other hand the main meaning of "affliction" is "a cause of pain or harm", which fits your sentence much better.