AFFINITY, among civilians, implies a relation contracted by marriage; in contradistinction to consanguinity, or relation by blood.—Affinity does not found any real kinship; it is no more than a kind of fiction, introduced on account of the close relation between husband and wife. It is even said to cease, when the cause of it ceases: hence a woman who is not capable of being a witness for her husband's brother during his lifetime, is allowed for a witness when a widow, by reason the affinity is dissolved. Yet with regard to the contracting marriage, affinity is not dissolved by death, though it be in every thing else.