delectus

English

Etymology

From Latin delectus (“selection”), from deligo (“to select”).

Noun

delectus (plural delectuses)

1. (obsolete) An elementary reader (collection of passages) for learners of a language
   • 1871-2, George Eliot, Middlemarch, volume I, book IV, chapter 37

     If she spoke with any keenness of interest to Mr. Casaubon, he heard her with an air of patience as if she had given a quotation from the Delectus familiar to him from his tender years, and sometimes mentioned curtly what ancient sects or personages had held similar ideas, as if there were too much of that sort in stock already; at other times he would inform her that she was mistaken, and reassert what her remark had questioned.

   • 1872, Matthew Arnold, “General Report for the Year 1872”, in Sir Francis Sanford, editor, Reports on Elementary Schools 1852-1882:

     I am convinced that for [t]his purpose the best way would be to disregard classical Latin entirely, to use neither Cornelius Nepos, nor Eutropius, nor Cæsar, nor any delectus from them, but to use the Latin Bible, the Vulgate.

Latin

Etymology 1

Perfect passive participle of dēligō (“[I] pick off; select”).

Participle

dēlēctus (feminine dēlēcta, neuter dēlēctum); first/second-declension participle

1. picked off, having been picked off, plucked off, having been plucked off; culled, having been culled
2. chosen, having been chosen, selected, having been selected

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	dēlēctus	dēlēcta	dēlēctum		dēlēctī	dēlēctae	dēlēcta
genitive	dēlēctī	dēlēctae	dēlēctī		dēlēctōrum	dēlēctārum	dēlēctōrum
dative	dēlēctō	dēlēctae	dēlēctō		dēlēctīs
accusative	dēlēctum	dēlēctam	dēlēctum		dēlēctōs	dēlēctās	dēlēcta
ablative	dēlēctō	dēlēctā	dēlēctō		dēlēctīs
vocative	dēlēcte	dēlēcta	dēlēctum		dēlēctī	dēlēctae	dēlēcta

Etymology 2

From dēligō (“I esteem, love, select”) +‎ -tus (action noun suffix), literally “selection”.

Alternative forms

• dīlēctus

Noun

dēlēctus m (genitive dēlēctūs); fourth declension

1. selection, choice, distinction
2. levy, recruiting
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico VII.1:

     delectum tota provincia habere instituit

     He determined to have a levy throughout the entire province

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	dēlēctus	dēlēctūs
genitive	dēlēctūs	dēlēctuum
dative	dēlēctuī	dēlēctibus
accusative	dēlēctum	dēlēctūs
ablative	dēlēctū	dēlēctibus
vocative	dēlēctus	dēlēctūs

Descendants

• Catalan: delit
• Italian: diletto

References

• “delectus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “delectus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “delectus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “delectus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “delectus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin