Laïsn.
/ˈlʌɪɪs/ Now rare.
Used allusively of a beautiful and accomplished temptress.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > loss of chastity > [noun] > seduction > seducer > seductress
Laïs1576
Delilah1585
seductress1803
femme fatale1879
man-eater1906
wolfess1945
Lolita1959
1576 G. Gascoigne Steele Glas sig. Cii Lais leades a Ladies life alofte, And Lucrece lurkes, with sobre bashful grace.
1600 Thynne Emblems xiii Dame Lais is a puritane.
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. ii. 39 Like a Lais, whose inconstant Loue Doth euery day a thousand times remoue.
1665 T. Herbert Some Years Trav. (new ed.) 317 The Amorosa's, or those of the order of Lais..be more sociable, have most freedome, and in this Region are not worst esteemed of.
1859 G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 200 She on the bay, yonder, is Lais. Yonder goes Aspasia... Some of those dashing delightful creatures have covered themselves with shame, and their mothers with grief.
1967 M. Ward Du Barry Inheritance xi. 174 The ‘revolutionary jury’..was asked to decide the fate of this Laïs, for whose shameful pleasures a despot had sacrificed the blood and treasures of his people.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1997; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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