Delight: Pleasure Bright Enough to Show
Delight is great pleasure, and the thing that causes it. The silent gh was added by mistake, on the false assumption that the word was related to light.
Delight is vivid pleasure — the kind that shows on a face. Its spelling contains a genuine historical error: the word came from French *delit* and had no gh at all. Scribes added it by analogy with *light* and *night*, and the mistake became standard.
- Great pleasure (noun). *She squealed with delight.*
- A source of pleasure. *The garden is a delight.*
- To please greatly (verb). *The trick delighted the children.*
- To take pleasure in. *He delights in an argument.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | delight | Pure delight. |
| Verb | delight | It delighted everyone. |
| Adjective | delighted | Delighted to meet you. |
| Adjective | delightful | A delightful evening. |
| Adverb | delightfully | Delightfully odd. |
How it is used in a sentence
- To my delight, the train was early.To my delight — a fixed opening.
- He delights in proving people wrong.Delight in — takes pleasure in, often slightly disapproving.
- I would be delighted to help.Polite acceptance, warmer than happy to.
Spellings created by mistaken analogy
- Delight — no gh originally; borrowed the pattern from light
- Island — no s originally; the s was added to match Latin *insula*
- Debt and doubt — silent b added to match Latin *debitum* and *dubitare*
- Scissors — the c was added on a false Latin connection
- English spelling contains a whole layer of well-meant scholarly errors
From Old French *delitier*, from Latin *delectare*, to charm — the same source as delectable and delicious. The pleasure family is unusually large in English, and this branch of it is entirely borrowed.
Delighted or pleased?
Delighted is warmer and stronger. In business English *delighted to announce* is standard and *pleased* sounds more measured.
Delight in or delight at?
Delight in something you enjoy repeatedly. Delight at a specific piece of news.