Affliction
Middle English (originally in the sense ‘infliction of pain or humiliation’, specifically ‘religious self-mortification’): via Old French from Latin afflictio(n- ), from the verb affligere (see afflict).
wiktionary
From Middle English affliction, affliccioun, from Old French afliction, from Latin afflictio, from affligere. See afflict.
etymonline
affliction (n.)
c. 1300, affliccioun, "misery, sorrow, pain, distress" (originally especially "self-inflicted pain, self-mortification, religious asceticism"), from Old French afliction "act of humility, humiliation, mortification, punishment" (11c.) and directly from Latin afflictionem (nominative afflictio), noun of action from past-participle stem of affligere "to dash down, overthrow," from ad "to" (see ad-) + fligere (past participle flictus) "to strike" (see afflict). Meaning "a cause of constant pain or sorrow" is from 1590s.
"I know, O Lord [says the Psalmist] that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me;" the furnace of affliction being meant but to refine us from our earthly drossiness, and soften us for the impression of Gods own stamp and image. [Robert Boyle, "Seraphic Love," 1663]
