tentation

Forms

tentation f (plural tentations)^[1] Old French temptacium, temptacion;^[2][3][4] tentation from the 13th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin temptātiō (“incitement to sin”), first as temptacion.^[5][6][1] In classical Latin the word meant “attack of illness” and “trial, experiment”; it is formed on temptō (“to try, test”), the source of tenter.^[5][6][3]

Littré compares Old Occitan temptacio, Spanish tentación and Italian tentazione.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as temptacium in the Oxford Psalter, about 1120: Sulunc le jurn de temptacium el desert “as on the day of temptation in the wilderness”.^[2][4][5] It meant what leads someone to break a moral or religious law.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Christian use the word named the inner movement that draws a person towards evil;^[6] the phrase induire en tentation “to lead into temptation” is recorded in 1653.^[5] As in Latin it also meant “trial, attempt” from about 1450 until the 17th century, in competition with tentative.^[6]

From 1637 it took the wider sense “what prompts an action by arousing desire”, and so a desire to do something.^[5][6] English temptation goes back to the Anglo-Norman forms.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Temptacium in the Oxford Psalter.^[2][3]
• 13th century – The spelling tentation.^[3]
• c. 1450 – Used for “trial, attempt”, until the 17th century.^[6]
• 1637 – Peiresc uses it for a desire to do something.^[5]
• 1653 – Induire en tentation in d'Assoucy.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. What leads someone to break a religious or moral law, an urge towards sin: succomber à la tentation, induire en tentation.^[8][5]
2. (religion) A trial God sends to test a person's faith;^[5] tentation de Dieu, the act of challenging God.^[5]
3. The act of the tempter, as in the temptation of Christ in the desert.^[8]
4. Whatever prompts an action by arousing desire, and the inclination it arouses: la tentation de partir.^[8][5][3]

Related words

• tenter
• tentateur
• tentative
• Latin temptātiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert