Etymologically
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delizioso

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Pronunciation

  • /de.litˈt͡sjo.zo/, /de.litˈt͡sjo.so/[1]

Forms

delizioso (feminine deliziosa, masculine plural deliziosi, feminine plural deliziose)[1] Old forms include Old Italian dilizioso, Old Italian dilicioso, Old Italian delitioso and Milanese Old Italian delicïosa.[2][3] Old Italian also had lezioso, with the first syllable dropped.[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin dēliciōsus (“delightful”), a learned word.[6][7][8][1] The Latin adjective is formed from dēliciae (“delights, luxury”) with the suffix -ōsus.[1][9] Zingarelli and Gabrielli derive it instead from the verb dēliciāre (“to delight”).[3][9] The same Latin word gave the learned French délicieux, Catalan deliciós, Spanish delicioso and Portuguese delicioso, and Romansh “delizius”.[5][4]

DELI derives Latin “dēliciae” from the expressive verb Latin lacere (“to entice”), of unknown origin;[6] Nocentini traces it through delicere (“to allure”) to the same verb, which he groups with allettare and dilettare.[7] The apple sense goes back to English: “mela deliziosa” renders English delicious, the name of an American apple variety.[7][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Milanese poetry of Bonvesin de la Riva, before 1315, and LEI has Guittone d'Arezzo in the second half of the 13th century;[2][5][3] Zingarelli dates the word before 1294.[2][5][3] DELI's first record is Domenico Cavalca, before 1342.[6][8] The early sense is “that gives joy and delight”, and Nocentini gives “enchanting”.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word in a negative sense, of someone given to refinements and to the sins of gluttony and lust: Cavalca writes of conviti deliziosi, lavish banquets, and warns questi deliziosi that they will weep for ever.[2][12][13] Boccaccio uses deliziosa vita for a life of pleasure.[13] This sense, “voluptuous, effeminate”, lasted until the 20th century (Tassoni before 1635, Piovene in 1957) and is now obsolete.[5][3]

The sense of food that satisfies the taste is old too, and the TLIO already records it.[2] Francesco Redi wrote that the soft antlers of deer were delicacies at the tables of the great.[13] Today the word is used above all of pleasant things, places, people and food, and in the 20th century the apple name deliziosa was taken from English.[8][5][10]

Timeline

  • Second half of the 13th century – Guittone d'Arezzo uses delizioso.[5][7]
  • Before 1315 – Bonvesin de la Riva has Milanese delicïosa.[2]
  • Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca writes of conviti deliziosi.[6][8]
  • 1354–1355 – Boccaccio uses diliziosa in the sense “given to pleasure”.[5]
  • 1524 – Castiglione uses the Latinizing form delicioso.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. delightful, very pleasant; charming or pretty: Abbiamo passato una serata deliziosa.[8][10][3]
  2. Of a person: charming, very pleasant in manner or appearance: La loro figlia è una bambina deliziosa.[8][14]
  3. Of a place: lovely, attractive to look at.[8][10]
  4. Of food or drink: delicious, tasting very good: Questa torta è deliziosa.[8][10][11]
  5. (agriculture) mela deliziosa: the Delicious apple.[10][14][11]
  6. (obsolete) voluptuous, soft, given to pleasures.[3][13]

Word family

  • deliziosamente
  • delizia
  • deliziare
  • Latin dēliciae
  • French délicieux
  • English delicious

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 845
  6. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  10. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  13. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse