aff. bff. cff. ...

[Joe Thomasson]

     Anyone who has ever taught a beginning level taxonomy course knows what
cf. and aff. mean and where they originated.  After every keying exam that I
give where students misidentify a particularly difficult specimen (often a
beautiful grass) they will comment "well, it looked just like" (= aff.), "I
would have sworn it was" (= cf.), or "are you kidding" (= aff. or cf.), etc.
Obviously the terms as we professionals use them are instinctual
expressions of primordial phrases from our prehistoric keying days.