Dainty

How to spell dainty

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dainty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dainty mean?

1. adjectiveDelicately small, pretty, and finely made.

Dainty in a sentence

• The jeweller set the stone in a dainty silver band.

• She served the tea in dainty porcelain cups.

Where does dainty come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Dainty traces back to the Latin dignitas, meaning 'worthiness' or 'dignity', which itself grew from dignus, meaning 'worthy'. It reached English through Anglo-Norman and Old French as deintie or daintie, where it first worked as a noun meaning a choice morsel, a delicacy, or a source of pleasure; something that was considered worthy or valued. By the 1300s English had borrowed it, and the sense gradually slid from 'a prized treat' to the idea of being delicious, then to delicate, fine, and pretty. The journey from 'worthy' to 'delicate' is what explains the slightly surprising spelling: the 'ai' carries the long vowel sound while the word still hides its grand Latin ancestry, the same root that gives us 'dignity' and 'dignified'. Today the noun sense survives mostly in older or regional writing, while the adjective for something small, delicate, and elegant is the common one.

How the word is built

• dain- (from Latin dignus: worthy)
• -ty (noun/adjective suffix from Old French -tie)