delicium

Latin

Alternative forms

• dēlicia, dēliciae

Etymology

From dēlicere (“to entice, to snare; to delight”) +‎ -ium (“-ium: forming abstract nouns”), from dē- +‎ lacere (“to entice, to snare”), from Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, to pull”), with no known cognates in any other Indo-European languages.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /deːˈli.ki.um/, [d̪eːˈlʲɪkiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /deˈli.t͡ʃi.um/, [d̪eˈliːt͡ʃium]

Noun

dēlicium n (genitive dēliciī or dēlicī); second declension

1. delight, pleasure

   Synonyms: gaudium, dēlectātiō, voluptās, laetitia, frūctus, alacritās

   Antonyms: maeror, maestitia, aegritūdō, lūctus, trīstitia, trīstitūdō, tristitās, dēsīderium

2. darling, pet
3. (figuratively) a prepubescent or adolescent boy who served as a sex slave, chosen for his supposed beauty

   Synonyms: catamītus, puer dēlicātus

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	dēlicium	dēlicia
genitive	dēliciī dēlicī1	dēliciōrum
dative	dēliciō	dēliciīs
accusative	dēlicium	dēlicia
ablative	dēliciō	dēliciīs
vocative	dēlicium	dēlicia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• French: délice

References

• “delicium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “delicium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• delicium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.