delicious

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɪˈlɪʃ.əs/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French delicious, delicios (modern French délicieux),^[2][3][4] from dēliciōsus (“delicious, delicate”),^[2][3][5] from dēliciae (“delight, allurement, charm”),^[2][3][6] from dēlicere “to allure, entice”,^[2][3][4] from dē- “away” and lacere “to lure”, which is of uncertain origin.^[2] See delight.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Highly delightful, pleasing in the highest degree: about 1300 in the OED and Etymonline; probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, in Barnhart.^[7][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Pleasing to the bodily senses, especially taste and smell, is from 1340.^[7] In Middle English the word also meant given to sensual indulgence or luxurious, of things from before 1340 and of persons from 1393, senses now gone.^[7][8] Intensely amusing, as in a delicious joke, is from 1642.^[7] The Delicious apple, first grown by Jesse Hiatt of Iowa, is named from 1903,^[2][7] and the colloquial shortening delish is from 1920.^[2] Word Origins suggests that luscious may be an alteration of delicious.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – highly delightful.^[7][2]
• 1340 – pleasing to taste and smell.^[7]
• 1393 – of persons, voluptuous (obsolete).^[7]
• 1642 – very amusing.^[7]
• 1903 – the Delicious apple.^[7][2]
• 1920 – delish.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Very pleasing to the taste or smell.
2. Very pleasant or enjoyable; delightful: a delicious joke.

Noun

1. (Delicious) A sweet red or yellow variety of apple.

Word family

• deliciously
• deliciousness
• delish
• overdelicious
• undelicious
• red delicious

Related words

• delight
• delicacy
• delicate
• luscious
• elicit

Usage notes

The AHD groups delicious with ambrosial, delectable, luscious, scrumptious, toothsome and yummy, all meaning extremely pleasing to the taste.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin