Appealing to or attracting someone, especially toward something wrong or unwise; enticing or alluring.
From Latin 'temptare' meaning 'to test' or 'to try,' originally referring to testing the strength or quality of something. The meaning evolved to include testing someone's moral resolve, then to the modern sense of alluring or enticing.
The word 'tempting' originally meant simply 'testing,' which reveals that temptation was once viewed as a neutral examination rather than something inherently negative. This shows how moral judgments became embedded in our vocabulary over time, transforming a neutral concept into one loaded with ethical implications.
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