alluring
/əˈlʊərɪŋ/adjective
Strongly attractive, tempting, or captivating
From O.French, from Anglo-French; ultimately from a Frankish/Germanic falconry term allure (To attract).
Lineage
The story
Picture a medieval falconer swinging a bunch of feathers on a cord, making it look like a small bird so a hunting hawk will return. That object was a lure, from a Frankish or other Germanic word connected with calling, and Old French turned it into aleurer—“to attract” or even “to train a falcon.” English borrowed the verb through Anglo-French around 1400, then built alluring in the 1570s: something so appealing that it seems to tug on your desires like that feathered decoy tugged on a hawk. There is a competing Old French path involving allure, “gait” or “way of walking,” so the word may carry a faint image of an attractive manner as well as a literal lure. Either way, alluring is what happens when attraction grows a hook.
Modern usage
A person or creature resembling a “Jennifer-like” figure associated with mystery, seduction, and distinctive fascination.
- Heard in
- informal online slang
- See
- Urban Dictionary entry describing a “jennifer-like creature”