Etymograph

English

delicate

Delicate comes from Latin dēlicātus ‘giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious,…’, from laciō ‘to snare, entice’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *lakjō ‘to draw, pull’.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*lakjō1‘to draw, pull’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElaciō2‘to snare, entice’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēliciae3‘delight, pleasure’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēlicātus3‘giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate, fine, slender’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500delicat3
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1547delicate3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin lacio
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin deliciae
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English delicate
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1547, Of Difference of Meates: “[A]mong Chꝛiſten men there haue been now a greate…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*lakjōWiktionary, Latin lacio‘to draw, pull’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElaciōWiktionary, Latin deliciae‘to snare, entice’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēliciaeWiktionary, English delicate‘delight, pleasure’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēlicātusWiktionary, English delicate‘giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate, fine, slender’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500delicatWiktionary, English delicate
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1547delicateWiktionary, English delicate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1547, Of Difference of Meates: “[A]mong Chꝛiſten men there haue been now a greate…”

The story

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.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin laciō ‘to snare, entice’

delight, elicit, 9 more

Today it means

adj Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “delicate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin lacio, Latin deliciae. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *lakjō / delicate

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