wiles
plural noun

- clever talk or tricks used to persuade someone to do what you want

- ways of persuading someone that trick them into doing something

- a trick or stratagem intended to ensnare or deceive; also: a beguiling or playful trick

Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Dictionary, Longman Dictionary 

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WORD ORIGIN

The word is old, murky and — fittingly — a bit slippery in its origins. It enters written English in the late Old English period as wil, meaning a deceitful stratagem or crafty trick. Scholars are not entirely sure where it came from. The most likely source is Old Norse vēl, meaning trick, craft or fraud — which would make it a Viking-era import, carried into England during the period of Scandinavian settlement from the 9th century onward.

A second theory points to Old North French wile, itself related to Old French guile — which is also where the English word guile comes from. Wile and guile are therefore probable distant cousins, possibly sharing a common Germanic ancestor.

There is a third, more intriguing possibility: that wile is distantly connected to the Old English word wicca — meaning wizard. If true, the word carries a faint trace of magic and enchantment at its root, which would explain why it attaches so naturally to charm and seduction.

By the 14th century, the plural wiles had appeared specifically in the phrase wiles of women — already carrying the feminine connotation that still follows the word today. The lighter, more playful sense — a charming rather than malicious trick — developed around 1600.

One last twist: the phrase "to wile away the time" (meaning to spend time pleasantly) is a common error. The correct form is "while away". But the confusion is so old and so persistent that most dictionaries now accept both.

Did we trick you with the OWAD quiz today?

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS AND IDIOMS

artfulness, artifice, buttering-up, calculation, canniness, charm (offensive), charming the birds from the trees, clever persuasion, contrivance, craft, crafty tactics, cunning, deceit, deception, deployment of charm, device, deviousness, diplomatic finesse, dodge, duplicity, feint, foxiness, gambit, guile, having someone eating out of one's hand, imposture, ingenuity, insinuation, laying a trap, leading someone up the garden path, lulling someone into a false sense of security, lure, machiavellianism, manipulation, manipulativeness, manoeuvre, mind games, playing both ends against the middle (one's cards right, to someone's vanity), ploy, psychological tactics, pulling strings (the wool over someone's eyes), ruse, scheme, seductive tactics, shrewdness, sleight (of hand), slyness, smoke and mirrors, smooth talk, smoothness, snare, social intelligence, soft persuasion (power), stratagem, street smarts, subterfuge, sweet-talking, taking someone in, talking someone into something, trap, trickery, WILES, wiliness, winning someone over, working the room, wrapping someone around one's little finger

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THANKS to Faye for suggesting today’s OWAD.

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—
PLEASE SUPPORT US

On evenings and weekends, OWAD is researched and written by Paul & Helga Smith, with the sharp editorial eye of their daughter Jennifer. It remains FREE, AD-FREE, and ALIVE thanks to voluntary donations from appreciative readers.

If you aren’t already, please consider supporting us — even a small donation, equivalent to just 1-cup-of-coffee a month, would help us in covering expenses for mailing, site-hosting, maintenance, and service.

Just head over to DonorBox:
https://donorbox.org/please-help-to-keep-owad-alive-2-2

or

Bank transfer:
Paul Smith
IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40

Important: please state as ’Verwendungszweck’: “OWAD donation” and the email address used to subscribe to OWAD.

Thanks so much,

Paul
(OWAD Founder)