English → Latin
“dainty” in Latin
nitidusshining, polished, glittering; handsome, beautiful, good-looking; healthy-looking, well conditionedēlegānsfine, elegant, handsome; tasteful; fastidious, criticalfastīdiōsussqueamish; nauseating; disdainful, scornfulligurriōto be dainty or fond of luxuries; to lick up, feed upon, feast on; to envy or long forcuppēdiaa taste for delicacies; delicaciesscītāmentadelicate food, dainties, delicacies; stylistic elegances, niceties or prettinesses of speech
The English word dainty itself goes back to Latin dignus, through dignitātem.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
dainty adj.
Fond of dainties, *cuppediorum studiosus (after Suet., Caes. 46): fastidii delicati. I am not at all dainty, nihil moror cuppedia: to be dainty, ligurrire (Ter., Eun., 5, 4, 14).
Possessing exquisite taste, nitidus; elegans.
Fastidious, fastidiosus.
dainty s.
cibus delicatus; in the plur., cuppedia, or cuppediae, cibi delicatiores; res ad epulandum exquisitissimae; bonae res (Nep., Ages., 8, 5, τὰ ἀγαθά); gulae irritamenta (inasmuch as they tickle the palate, or make the mouth water). Such expressions as escae molliculae, scitamenta, belong to comedy, and lautitiae betokens a magnificent style of living): to live on the choicest dainties, unum quidque, quod est bellissimum, edere (after Ter., Ad., 4, 2, 51): this bird is a dainty seldom to be met with, haec ales nunc inter primas expetitur: this, too, is one of Gunter’s dainties, est hoc quoque inter opera ganeae: don’t talk to me of dainties, nihil moror cuppedia.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for dainty?
- The usual Latin words for “dainty” are nitidus, ēlegāns, fastīdiōsus; also ligurriō, cuppēdia, scītāmenta. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.