delicate

The story

1. Proto-Italic · derived from*lakjō“to draw, pull”
2. Latin · derived fromdēlicātus“giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate, (in Medieval Latin also) fine, slender”
3. Middle English · inherited fromdelicat
4. English todaydelicate

From Middle English delicat, from Latin dēlicātus (“giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate, (in Medieval Latin also) fine, slender”), from dēlicia + -ātus (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), usually in plural dēliciae (“pleasure, delight, luxury”), from dēliciō (“to allure, entice”), from dē- (“away”) + laciō (“to lure, to deceive”), from Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, pull”), of unknown ultimate origin. Compare delight, delicious and Spanish delgado (“thin, skinny”). The noun is from a substantivization of the adjective (see -ate).

Words from the same roots