The verb allure evolved from the Middle English aluren, which meant “to entice” or “to seduce” and was itself derived from an Old French falconry term, aleurier, that meant “to bait or lure.” The spelling of the English shifted to allure around 1400, and though its meaning has remained essentially the same—to this day, in fact, the verb still retains its original underlying connotations of emotional enslavement and carnal corruption—the noun sense of “the quality of being powerfully attractive or fascinating” didn't appear until circa 1550.
©2018 Michael R. Gates
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