Etymology: apparently aphetic < attempt n.

Etymology: < Old French and Anglo-Norman tempte-r (12–14th centuries), learned form, beside the popular form tenter , tanter < Latin temptāre , temtāre to handle, touch, feel, try the strength of, put to the test, try, attempt: compare Provençal temptar , Catalan tentar , Spanish tentar , Portuguese tentar , Italian tentare . The English form has always followed Latin tem(p)tare , the form tent being very rare (see tent v.²); but the noun temptation had from 13th cent. the doublet tentation, which during the 16th and 17th centuries was much used by theological writers.In inscriptions and early manuscripts, the Latin verb is always tempt- or temtāre ; this became in due course tentāre in Romanic (see above, and compare promptus , pronto , etc.); about the 13th cent. scribes began to introduce this spelling in Latin manuscripts, whence it came into printed books and Latin dictionaries, being supported by an assumed etymology as frequentative of tendĕre , tentum to stretch, strive, aim, endeavour, try (meeting at length with sense 3 below); but this is now rejected in favour of a root tem- , temp- : see Walde Lat. Etym. Wörterbuch s.v. tempto. Sense 4, a later development in Latin, common in the Vulgate and Christian use, is the earliest recorded in English.