Affordance
Etymology
Coined by psychologist James J. Gibson in the 1960s and 1970s, from the verb "afford," to name what an environment offers an animal — a surface affords walking, a branch affords grasping. Designer Don Norman carried it into product design in 1988, where it became shorthand for the actions an object visibly invites. Flag it as a coinage.
noun · /uh-FOR-dunss/
A property of an object or environment that signals or enables a particular action.
What it names
A designer’s and thinker’s tool for asking what a thing invites you to do: a flat plate says push, a handle says pull, and good design makes the right action obvious before any instruction.
Example
The door’s flat metal plate is a clear affordance — nobody wastes a second yanking on it.
Related idea
Contrast the dark pattern, which weaponizes affordances — dressing the trap to look like the obvious safe action so the interface invites exactly the move against your interest.