coquetry (n.)

"effort to attract love from a motive of vanity or amusement, trifling in love," 1650s, from French coquetterie, from coqueter (v.) "to flirt," originally "to swagger or strut like a cock," from coquet (see coquet).

Coquetry whets the appetite; flirtation depraves it .... ["Ik. Marvel" (Donald Grant Mitchell), "Reveries of a Bachelor," 1851]