delectus
English
Etymology
Latin , meaning "selection", from deligere, delectum (“to select”).
Noun
delectus (plural delectuses)
- (obsolete) An elementary book for learners of Latin or Greek.
- 1871-2, George Eliot, Middlemarch, book 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 Reports on Elementary Schools 1852-1882, edited by Sir Francis Sanford
- 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.
- 1871-2, George Eliot, Middlemarch, book 37
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for delectus in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
Latin
Etymology
Perfect passive participle of dēligō (“[I] pick off; select”).
Participle
dēlēctus (feminine dēlēcta, neuter dēlēctum); first/second-declension participle
- picked off, having been picked off, plucked off, having been plucked off; culled, having been culled
- chosen, having been chosen, selected, having been selected
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
| Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nominative | dēlēctus | dēlēcta | dēlēctum | dēlēctī | dēlēctae | dēlēcta | |
| Genitive | dēlēctī | dēlēctae | dēlēctī | dēlēctōrum | dēlēctārum | dēlēctōrum | |
| Dative | dēlēctō | dēlēctō | dēlēctīs | ||||
| Accusative | dēlēctum | dēlēctam | dēlēctum | dēlēctōs | dēlēctās | dēlēcta | |
| Ablative | dēlēctō | dēlēctā | dēlēctō | dēlēctīs | |||
| Vocative | dēlēcte | dēlēcta | dēlēctum | dēlēctī | dēlēctae | dēlēcta | |
Noun
dēlēctus m (genitive dēlēctūs); fourth declension
- selection, choice, distinction
- levy, recruiting
Declension
Fourth-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | dēlēctus | dēlēctūs |
| Genitive | dēlēctūs | dēlēctuum |
| Dative | dēlēctuī | dēlēctibus |
| Accusative | dēlēctum | dēlēctūs |
| Ablative | dēlēctū | dēlēctibus |
| Vocative | dēlēctus | dēlēctūs |
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