• allure •
Pronunciation: ê-lur • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Entice by suspiciously subtle means, attract cunningly, lure mysteriously, attract with something enticing.
Notes: This lovely word alone may be used as a noun to indicate the means of allurement, as 'the allure of Hollywood'. The quality noun from the adjective, alluringness, is equally popular as the noun from the verb, allurement. Allurement is also a synonym for the noun allure. Someone who allures in any way may be called an allurer.
In Play: Beautiful women very often allure men: "Phyllis Glass used her good looks and alluring personality to work her way up the male-dominated social ladder." But, under the right circumstances, most anything can have an allure: "There was a time when the price of copper allured thieves more than gold."
Word History: Today's Good Word seems to have originated with Old French aleurer "to lure, captivate", originally "to train a falcon to hunt" for it is a remake of à "(up) to" + loirre "(to the) falconer's lure". This word was borrowed from Frankish lothr "falcon lure" or some other Germanic derivative of Proto-Germanic lothran "to call", source of Modern German Luder "lure, bait" and laden "to invite". The English word may have been influenced by French allure "look, appearance". Anyway, we only find evidence of allure in Western Indo-European languages, mostly Romance and Germanic. (Let's give Albert Skiles a round of applause for suggesting today's most alluring Good Word.)
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