dainty
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French deintié, from Latin dignitātem. Doublet of dignity.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
dainty (plural dainties)
- (obsolete) Esteem, honour.
- 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.
- (Can we date this quote by William Cowper and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
- [A table] furnished plenteously with bread, / And dainties, remnants of the last regale.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- (Canada, Prairies and northwestern Ontario) A fancy cookie, pastry, or square served at a social event (usually plural).
- (obsolete) An affectionate term of address.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
a delicacy
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Adjective[edit]
dainty (comparative daintier, superlative daintiest)
- (obsolete) Excellent; valuable, fine.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 13, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- 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.
- Elegant; delicately small and pretty.
- 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: Printed [by Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837:
- Those dainty limbs which nature lent / For gentle usage and soft delicacy.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
- However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.
- Fastidious and fussy, especially when eating.
- (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
- They were a fine and dainty people.
- c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii]:
- And let us not be dainty of leave taking, / But shift away.
- (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
delicately small and pretty
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fastidious and fussy when eating
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References[edit]
- “dainty” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Categories:
- English terms derived from the PIE root *deḱ-
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for date/William Cowper
- Canadian English
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
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