Things that tempt or attract someone, especially with the promise of reward. Artificial baits used to attract fish or other animals.
From Old French 'loirre', originally a falconry term for a device used to recall hawks, possibly from Middle High German 'luoder' meaning 'bait'. The meaning expanded from hunting contexts to general temptation by the 16th century.
The word 'lures' originated in medieval falconry, where it described a feathered device swung to call hunting birds back to their handlers. This specialized hunting term evolved into our modern metaphor for any tempting attraction, showing how technical vocabulary often becomes everyday language through metaphorical extension.
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