delight
/dəˈlaɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.97 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A place in the United States:
name
A place in the United States:
Example Sentences
- "A fool hath no delight in understanding."
- "[…] the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not."
- "Gay as a flutter of butterflies and light as a zephyr, these dainty fabrics instantly suggest a wardrobe of sheer delight."
- "At any other time Jessamy would have laughed at the expressions that chased each other over his freckled face: crossness left over from his struggle with the baby; incredulity; distress; and finally delight."
- "From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away."
- "Greensleeves was all my joy / Greensleeves was my delight, […]"
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: delite, deleiter, dēlectō, *lakjō