A keen, immediate burst of pleasure in a specific pleasing thing.
A keen, immediate burst of pleasure in a specific pleasing thing; also a thing that gives such pleasure.
The sharp, high-pleasure reaction of the family — intense but usually acute and short-lived, and fixed on a specific object or event (“squealing with delight,” “the show was a delight”). More immediate and object-focused than joy, a spike rather than the state of happiness, more intense than gladness. Uniquely common as a count noun (“a delight,” “delights”). Can take a darker object, like joy, where gladness cannot.
c. 1200, delit, from Old French delit, from Latin delectare “to allure, delight, charm.” Spelled delite until the 16th century; the modern -ght is unetymological, by false analogy with light, flight, sight.
Once often used for “low” or sensual pleasure, it was later “redeemed” to denote keen, wholesome pleasure; the -ght spelling settled by about 1600. No reliable recent-generation shift is sourced.