blandishment
nounEtymology
From blandish (“to persuade someone by using flattery, to cajole; to praise someone dishonestly, to flatter or butter up”) + -ment (suffix forming nouns from verbs, having the sense of ‘the action or result of what is denoted by the verbs’). Blandish is derived from Middle English blaundishen (“to flatter; to fawn; to be enticing or persuasive; to be favourable; of the sea: to become calm”) [and other forms] (whence blaundice (“flattery, blandishment; caresses, dalliance; allurement, attractiveness; deceitfulness, deception”) [and other forms]), from Middle English blaundishen, from blandiss-, the extended stem of Middle French blandir + Middle English -ishen (suffix forming verbs). Blandir is derived from Latin blandīrī, the present active infinitive of blandior (“to fawn, flatter; to delude”), from blandus (“fawning, flattering, smooth, suave; persuasive; alluring, enticing, seductive; agreeable, pleasant”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“erroneous, false; bad, evil”)) + -iō (suffix forming causative verbs from adjectives).
- derived from blandīrī
- derived from -ishen
- derived from blandir
- derived from blaundishen
- inherited from blaundishen — “to flatter; to fawn; to be enticing or persuasive; to be favourable; of the sea: to become calm”
Definitions
Often in the plural form blandishments
Often in the plural form blandishments: a flattering speech or action designed to influence or persuade.
- Thus Her with Indignation frowning, ſtern, / With Tears, and Blandiſhments Æneas ſooth’d : / She bends here Eyes averſe upon the Ground ; / And by his Speech begun is mov’d no more, / Than a hard Flint, or fix’d Marpeſian Rock.
- Pat found subject and scene of his wooing unaltered, but all his specious blandishments could not induce the matured matron of 'Gi' Away Nothin' 'All' to join fortunes, though his perseverance would have delighted Bruce's spider.
Something alluring or attractive.
- We need intellectual leaders who are prepared to resist the blandishments of power and influence and who are willing to work for an ideal, however small may be the prospects of its early realization.
Allurement, attraction.
The neighborhood
- neighborbland
- neighborblandation
- neighborblandish
- neighborblandished
- neighborblandisher
- neighborblandishing
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for blandishment. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA