Etymology Dictionary

TANTALISE,  to tease or torment, by offering something that is just out of reach and is kept so.  (Gk.)   'What greater plague can hell itself devise, Than to be willing thus to tantalize?'   Answer to Ben Johnson's Ode (Come leave the loathed Stage), by T. Randolph, st. 2; printed in Jonson's Works, after the play of The New Inn.   Formed with the suffix -ise (F.-iser, Lat. -izare, Gk. -ιζειν) from the proper name Tantalus, Gk. Τάνταλος, in allusion to his story.   The fable was that he was placed up to his chin in water, which fled from his lips whenever he desired to drink.   This myth relates to the sun, which evaporates water, but remains, as it were, unsated.   The name Τάν-ταλ-ος may be explained as 'enduring,' from the ✔TAL, to endure; see Tolerate, Talent.   Der. tantal-ism (with F. suffix -isme = Lat. -isma = Gk. -ισμα), Beaum. and Fletcher, Wit at Several Weapons, act ii. l. 10 from end.