delight

The story

1. Proto-Italic · derived from*lakjō“to draw, pull”
2. Latin · derived fromdēlectāre“to delight, please”
3. Old French · derived fromdeleiter
4. Middle English · inherited fromdelite
5. English todaydelight

Attested from the 13th century, from Middle English delite, from Old French deleiter, deliter, from Latin dēlectāre (“to delight, please”), frequentative of dēlicere (“to allure, entice”), from dē- (“away”) + laciō (“to lure, to deceive”), from Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, pull”), of unknown ultimate origin. Doublet of delect. Related with delectation, delicate, delicious and dilettante. The modern unetymological spelling (instead of expected delite) is influenced by light and other words ending in -ight, such as might, bright, etc. The -gh- may also be an attempt to represent the Latin -c-; compare obsolete indight for indict.

Words from the same roots