Temptingly exciting or fascinating in a way that makes you want something you can't have or can't reach yet.
From Greek mythology—Tantalus was punished by the gods to stand in water that receded when he drank and under fruit branches that pulled away when he reached. The name gave us this verb in the 16th century.
Ancient storytellers created Tantalus's punishment as a metaphor for eternal frustration—and we still use his name thousands of years later, which shows how powerful mythological characters shape our vocabulary.
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