delectus

Forms

dēlēctus (feminine dēlēcta, neuter dēlēctum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect passive participle from Latin dēligō¹ (“to choose, pick out”).^[1][2][3] That verb is from Latin dē- + legō² (“to gather, choose”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest use is in Ennius' Annals, of picked troops: milia militum octo duxit delectos “he led eight thousand picked soldiers”.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective describes people or things chosen for their excellence: Lucretius speaks of the chosen leaders of the Greeks (ductores Danaum delecti).^[2] As a masculine plural noun it meant picked men or an élite force, as in Nepos, Livy and Tacitus, and in Cicero and Sallust the leading men of a state.^[1][2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it is simply “chosen, selected”.^[3]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of picked soldiers.^[1][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses delecti of the leading men, beside principes.^[1][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses delecti equitum for the pick of the cavalry.^[1][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus writes of picked archers sent against the fiercest enemies.^[1][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Chosen for excellence, picked, select.^[1][2]
2. (masculine plural as noun) Picked men, an élite; with a genitive, the pick of.^[1]
3. (masculine plural as noun) The leading men of a state.^[1][2]

Usage notes

The fourth-declension noun dēlēctus “choice; levy” is another spelling of dīlēctus, under which the OLD and Conte treat it.^[1][2] Manuscripts and editions mix the spellings dēlēctus and dīlēctus throughout, so the TLL and Lewis & Short note that the two forms cannot be told apart with certainty.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press