Affect in something? (a phrase from an older book)

Question

Reading an old tale from C.A.Smith, there is the following sentence:

About him, there was nothing whatever of the lineaments of our own
period; and he even went so far as to affect in his costume an
approximation to the garments worn several centuries ago.

While I know "affect" can mean "wear", in this particular sentence, it does not seem to fix. Also I am unsure about the following part - isn't there a comma missing after "costume"?

Jason Bassford · Accepted Answer

The particular sense of affect in this sentence comes from the following sense of the word:

[Merriam-Webster]
1 : to put on a pretense of : FEIGN
// affect indifference, though deeply hurt
// He affected a French accent.

To paraphrase the passage in the quesiton:

He caused his modern clothes to affect a centuries-old appearance.

In short, his clothes are not really centuries old, but he is putting on the pretense of them being so.

It's the verb equivalent of the noun affectation:

[Merriam-Webster]
1 a : speech or conduct not natural to oneself : an unnatural form of behavior meant especially to impress others
       // His French accent is just an affectation.

To again paraphrase the passage in the question (albeit losing more detail):

The centuries-old appearance of his clothes was an affectation.

Anton · Answer

To “affect” an appearance or manner is to adopt it so as to impress or give a false image. Google “affected manner” for examples.
In this case he wore clothes of an earlier period so as to give the impression that he was of that period. He affected the impression by wearing the clothes. In this case wear is not synonymous with affect.
Affect is synonymous with wear when used in sentences such as “he wears/affects the appearance of a military man” or “she wore/affected the appearance of a wronged woman”.

Affect in something? (a phrase from an older book)

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