dainty

English

Etymology

From Old French deintié, from Latin dignitātem.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈdeɪnti/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio

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• Rhymes: -eɪnti

Noun

dainty (plural dainties)

1. (obsolete) Esteem, honour.
2. A delicacy.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     […] my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was not driven to any extremities for food, but had rather plenty, even to dainties.

   • Cowper

     [A table] furnished plenteously with bread, / And dainties, remnants of the last regale.

3. (Canada, Prairies and northwestern Ontario) A fancy cookie, pastry, or square served at a social event (usually plural).
4. (obsolete) An affectionate term of address.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

Translations

A delicacy

• Bulgarian: деликатес, лакомство

• Russian: деликатес (ru) (delikates) m, лакомство (ru) (lakomstvo) n

Adjective

dainty (comparative daintier, superlative daintiest)

1. (obsolete) Excellent; valuable, fine.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.13:

     Heliogabalus the most dissolute man of the world, amidst his most riotous sensualities, intended, whensoever occasion should force him to it, to have a daintie death.

2. Delicately small and pretty.
3. Fastidious and fussy when eating.

Synonyms

• neat
• petite

Translations

Delicately small and pretty

• Bulgarian: нежен (bg) (nežen), изискан (bg) (iziskan)
• Dutch: delicaat (nl)
• Finnish: siro (fi)

• French: délicat (fr)
• Russian: изящный
• Welsh: amheuthun (cy)

Fastidious and fussy when eating

• Bulgarian: придирчив (bg) (pridirčiv)
• Finnish: nirso (fi), valikoiva (fi)

• Russian: привередливый (ru) (priveredlivyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: izbirljiv (sh)

References

• “dainty” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.