entice means to lure; to attract by arousing desire or hope. It carries an Arena rating of 1556, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, entice ranks #153 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #956 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,026 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #5,069 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
entice is pronounced /ɪnˈtaɪs/.
Why “entice” is a great word
To attract or lure by arousing desire or hope. From Middle English enticen, from Old French enticier ("to stir up, excite, incite"), from Vulgar Latin *intitiāre ("to set on fire"), from Latin in- ("in, on") + titiō ("firebrand"), first recorded in English 1250–1300. Unlike "tempt," which whispers of moral compromise, or "lure," which suggests the snap of a trap, "entice" is the artful presentation of the bait, not the hook. It is the shop-window glow on a wet evening, the scent of bread from a bakery door held ajar, the opening pages of a novel read in a stranger's voice—an invitation to want, crafted from the oldest embers of persuasion.
Etymology
From Middle English enticen, from Old French enticier (“to stir up or excite”), from a Vulgar Latin *intitiāre (“I set on fire”), from in- + titiō (“firebrand (tool)”), from Proto-Italic *tītjō (“heating”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *teih₁- (“to become hot, melt or to end”).
verb
- To lure; to attract by arousing desire or hope.e.g.“I enticed the little bear into the trap with a pot of honey.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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