illecebrous

Borrowed from Late Latin and Latin illecebrōsus (“attractive, enticing”) + English -ous (suffix forming adjectives denoting possession or presence of a quality, commonly in abundance). Illecebrōsus is derived from illecebra (“enticement, lure”)^[1] + -ōsus (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘full of’); illecebra from illiciō (“to entice, seduce”) (from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, within’) + laciō (“to ensnare, entice”)) + -bra (suffix forming nouns denoting an instrument).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɛsɪbɹəs/^[2]

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• Hyphenation: il‧le‧cebr‧ous or il‧le‧ce‧brous

illecebrous (comparative more illecebrous, superlative most illecebrous)

1. (formal, obsolete) Tending to attract; enticing.

   Synonyms: alluring, attractive, (obsolete, rare) illecebrose, (obsolete) illective; see also Thesaurus:attractive

   Antonyms: repulsive, unalluring, unattractive, unenticing

   • 1531, Thomas Elyot, edited by Ernest Rhys, The Boke Named the Gouernour […] (Everyman’s Library: Essays and Belles Lettres), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co.; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co., published [1907], →OCLC, pages 26 and 164:

     [The Firste Boke, Chapter VII (In What Wise Musike may be to a Noble Man Nessarie: And what Modestie ought to be therin), page 26] And therfore the great kynge Alexander, whan he had vainquisshed Ilion, where some tyme was set the moste noble citie of Troy, beinge demaunded of one if he wold se the harpe of Paris Alexander, who rauisshed Helene, he therat gentilly smilyng, answered that it was nat the thyng that he moche desired, but that he had rather se the harpe of Achilles, wherto he sange, nat the illecebrous dilectations of Venus, but the valiaunt actes and noble affaires of excellent princis.
     [The Seconde Boke, Chapter XI (The True Discription of Amitie or Frendship), page 164] Where the studie is elegant and the mater illecebrous, that is to say, swete to the redar, the course wherof is rather gentill persuasion and quicke reasoninges than ouer subtill argumentes or litigous controuersies, there also it hapneth that the studentes do delite one in a nother and without enuie or malicious contention.

   • [1658, Edward Phillips, compiler, “† Illecebrous”, in The New World of English Words: Or, A General Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Tyler, for Nath[aniel] Brook […], →OCLC, column 1:

     † Illecebrous, (lat[in]) alluring, charming, or inticing.]

   • 1735, [John Barrow], “JUPITER”, in Dictionarium Polygraphicum: Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested. […], volume II (I–S), London: […] C[harles] Hitch and C[harles] Davis […], and S[amuel] Austen […], →OCLC:

     [T]he lower parts [of a statue of Jupiter] being covered, ſhew, that while we wallow in the world, and are, as it were, rock'd to ſleep with the illecebrous blandiſhments of it, that the divine knowledge is, as it were, hid and obſcur'd from us: [...]

   • 1922 January, W. L. Renwick, “The Critical Origins of Spenser’s Diction”, in J. G. Robertson, G. C. Moore Smith, Edmund G[arratt] Gardner, editors, The Modern Language Review, volume XVII, number 1, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Modern Humanities Research Association, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 2:

     [John] Cheke, [Roger] Ascham, and [Thomas] Wilson, the leaders and mouthpieces of the Cambridge humanists, were extreme purists in the matter of language, condemning equally the foreign phrase of the translators and the obfuscate curiosity so illecebrous to [Thomas] Elyot.

   • 1932, Life, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14, column 2:

     [...] Mr. Lawrence Gilman appears to confirm the accuracy of this classification when he writes in an ordinary newspaper review of a song recital, that Miss Geraldine Farrar retains her illecebrous smile.

• illecebration (formal, obsolete, rare)