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delight

noun
/dəˈlaɪt/

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.

  1. derived from *lakjō✻
  2. derived from dēlectō
  3. derived from deleiter
  4. inherited from delite

Definitions

  1. Joy

    Joy; pleasure.

    • A fool hath no delight in understanding.
    • […] the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
    • 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.

  2. Something that gives great joy or pleasure.

    • Greensleeves was all my joy / Greensleeves was my delight, […]
    • […] Awake My fairest, my espous’d, my latest found, Heav’ns last best gift, my ever new delight,

  3. To give delight to

    To give delight to; to affect with great pleasure; to please highly.

    • Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds.
    • A beautiful landscape delights the eye.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. To have or take great pleasure.

      • A ſclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a ſkolde, Worketh more miſchiefe than can be tolde; That, if I wiſt not to be controlde, Yet ſomwhat to ſay I dare well be bolde,
      • For I have loved you well and long, / Delighting in your company.
      • He was an eisteddfodwr and delighted to hear good singing, whether it was in the sanctuary or at the eisteddfodic gatherings.

    2. A place in the United States

      A place in the United States:

The neighborhood

Derived

afternoon delight, Buddha's delight, Cupid's delight, delightful, delightless, delightly, delightsome, devil's delight, duper's delight, gardener's delight, Heart's Delight, idiot's delight, lumps of delight, queen's delight, take delight in, Turkish delight, undelight, whaler's delight, duping delight, delighter, delight in, delightingly, undelighting

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at delight. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01delight02highly03greatly04nobly05noble06valued07esteemed08admiration09surprise10delighted

A definitional loop anchored at delight. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at delight

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA