delicacy
/ˈdɛlɪkəsi/noun
A rare, refined, or especially pleasing food
From Latin delicate (Delightful).
Lineage
delicate
-acy
The story
Roman delicatus described someone devoted to pleasure—perhaps a person who preferred soft cushions and elaborate food to military hardship. The word is connected with Latin deliciae, “pleasure” or “luxury,” and with dēliciō, “to entice,” so a delicacy was originally something that lured you in rather than merely something expensive on a plate. In late-fourteenth-century English, delicacy could mean delightfulness or fastidiousness; by the early fifteenth century, it had narrowed toward fine food, while later senses included tenderness and even physical weakness. The food sense eventually acquired a curious social edge: calling an unusual dish a delicacy can make it sound cultivated, whether it is caviar or something far more alarming. Remember the basic image: delicacy is food—or a person—so enticingly refined that ordinary roughness seems unable to touch it.
Modern usage
A sarcastic term for an expensive or disgusting food served as a status symbol.
- Heard in
- informal slang
Words from the same roots
delicate · Latin, ‘Delightful, dainty, soft, or alluring’
Deriveddelight, delicious, delectable, indelicate, tender, delicateness