Other forms: intriguing, intrigued, intrigues
Intrigue is secret plotting to gain an advantage. Court intrigue, political intrigue, a web of intrigue.
It belongs to courts, offices and novels, and the plotting is usually against people rather than institutions. As a verb, intrigue has drifted almost entirely to a second sense — to fascinate: it intrigued me, an intriguing idea — which is now much the commoner use and irritates people who prefer the first. Note intriguing; and that intrigue and intricate are the same Latin word for entangling.
1nounintrigueSecret plotting to gain an advantage.
“The novel is full of palace intrigue, with princes plotting against their own brothers.”
2verbfascinateTo fascinate somebody.
“The strange noises coming from the attic intrigued the children.”
intrigue is secret plotting.
French intrigue comes from Italian intricare, to entangle, from Latin tricae, trifles or complications. Intricate is the same word, so an intrigue is literally a tangle.
Latin
intrīcō — to entangle, perplex, embarrass
Italian
intricare
French
intrigue
English, today
intrigue
Borrowed from French intrigue, from Italian intricare, from Latin intrīcō (“to entangle, perplex, embarrass”). a doublet of intricate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire