Etymologically
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lure

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /lʊə(r)/, /ljʊə(r)/[1]
  • US: /lʊr/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lure, borrowed from Anglo-Norman lure,[2][3][4] loirre, also luere and leurre, a device for recalling hawks,[2][3][5][4] now leurre,[5][6] probably of Germanic origin.[5][7][8] Etymonline, Klein and Wiktionary take it from Frankish *lōþr (“bait, lure”),[2][6][1] from Proto-Germanic *lōþr-,[1] the source also of Middle High German luoder, Middle Low German lōder (“lure, bait”) and German Luder (“bait”).[2][6][4][9] The Germanic word is probably related to the verb seen in Old English laþian (“to call, invite”), Old High German ladōn, Old Norse laða, Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌸𐍉𐌽 (laþōn, “to call, invite”) and laden (“to invite, summon”);[10][6][9][3] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *lē-t- (“to wish”), and Köbler compares the same root.[3][11] The French word has a parallel in logoro (“bait”).[5] In Anglo-Norman lure is recorded from 1235–55, for a bait shaped like a bird on a long cord, used to recall falcons.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds the phrase bringen to lure, to bring under control, about 1300.[3] The OED's first record of the noun, about 1385 in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, is already figurative: something that entices or tempts.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The lure was a falconer's device for recalling a hawk: a bunch of feathers made to look like a bird, fixed to a long cord, on which the hawk was fed during its training.[2][5] The word's figurative use, an attraction or enticement, is recorded before the literal one, which the OED first finds in the Promptorium Parvulorum about 1440;[5] phrases such as to stoop to the lure appear from Chaucer on, often figuratively.[5] In the 15th century lure was also a collective word for a group of young women.[2][12] The verb, formed from the noun, first meant to recall a hawk by casting the lure (about 1386, in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue); from 1393, in Piers Plowman, it also meant to allure, entice or tempt;[5][3] Juliet's "O for a falconer's voice, To lure this tassel-gentle back again" keeps the hawking sense.[13] From 1699 the noun was used of anything that draws animals to be caught, and in angling it became a wider term than bait, which strictly means something a fish can eat.[5][2] Johnson (1755) gave first "something held out to call a hawk".[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – bringen to lure, to bring under control.[3]
  • c. 1385 – something that entices or tempts, in Chaucer.[5]
  • c. 1386 – verb, to recall a hawk with the lure.[5]
  • 1393 – verb, to allure, entice, tempt, in Piers Plowman.[5]
  • c. 1440 – a falconer's apparatus for recalling hawks.[5]
  • 1572 – heraldry: a representation of a hawk's lure.[5]
  • 1699 – a means of luring animals to be caught; in angling, an artificial bait.[5][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Something that attracts or tempts; the attractive quality of something: the lure of the open road.[15][9][5]
  2. (angling) An artificial bait, such as a brightly coloured spinner of metal or plastic fitted with hooks.[15][9][5]
  3. A decoy or other means of drawing animals into a trap.[9][5]
  4. (falconry) A bunch of feathers on a long cord, often baited with meat, used to call a hawk back to the falconer.[15][9][5]

Verb

  1. To tempt or entice someone, especially away or into something, with the promise of a reward: The start-up lured her away with a higher salary.[15][9][5]
  2. (falconry) To call a hawk back by means of a lure.[15][9][5]

Word family

  • lurer
  • luringly
  • lurement
  • gyplure
  • Lurex
  • allure
  • allurement

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  12. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins