blandishment
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈblæn.dɪʃ.m(ə)nt/
ipa: /ˈblæn.dɪʃ.mənt/
Forms: form: blandishments
Etymology: 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).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1755, “Æneis”, in Joseph Trapp, transl., The Works of Virgil, volume II, book 6, pages 376–377, lines 600–604:
text: She looked up as she heard his footsteps, and the gracious smile which her lips put on, was an invitation to make himself happy in a seat beside her. But he resisted the blandishment, and lifting his hat as he passed, with a smile in return, he soon disappeared from her presence, and joined the two who awaited him.
ref: 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter V, page 66:
text: 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.
ref: 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 187:
synonyms: word: cajolery
word: flattery
word: adulation
word: ass-kissing
word: ass-licking
word: blandishment
word: gloze
word: hoomalimali
word: soft sawder
word: sooth
word: sycophancy
glosses: Often in the plural form blandishments: a flattering speech or action designed to influence or persuade.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 432:
glosses: Something alluring or attractive.
glosses: Allurement, attraction.
Related terms: word: bland
word: blandation
word: blandish
word: blandished
word: blandisher
word: blandishing