Delicacy

How to spell delicacy

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce delicacy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does delicacy mean?

1. nounA rare or luxurious food considered especially pleasing to eat.
2. nounThe quality of being fine, fragile, or easily damaged.
3. nounSensitivity and tact in handling a difficult or awkward matter.

Delicacy in a sentence

• Smoked eel is regarded as a local delicacy along the coast.

• The antique lace was prized for its delicacy and intricate pattern.

• She raised the redundancies with great delicacy at the meeting.

• The market stall sold an expensive delicacy flown in from abroad.

• The surgeon admired the delicacy of the tiny bones in the wrist.

• The negotiation demanded delicacy to avoid offending either side.

Where does delicacy come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grew out of the adjective 'delicate', which English took from the Latin delicatus, meaning 'giving pleasure', 'dainty', or 'soft and luxurious'. That Latin word was linked to deliciae, 'delight' or 'pleasure', and to the verb delicere, 'to allure' or 'to entice away', so the underlying idea is something so pleasing that it tempts you. English added the abstract noun ending -acy in the late 1300s, and at first 'delicacy' described luxury, indulgence, or fineness of texture and feeling. Over time it branched into the everyday senses we know: a fine or choice food, the quality of being fragile or delicate, and the tact required for awkward situations. The spelling trap lives in the soft middle: the unstressed schwa of '-cacy' tempts writers toward an 'i' or a doubled letter, and the c sounds soft like an s even though it stays a c.

How the word is built

• delic- (from Latin delicatus: giving pleasure, dainty)
• -acy (noun-forming suffix denoting a quality or state)