Delicate

Delicate - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

DELICATE, a. [L. Connected with delight; to delight.]

1. Of a fine texture; fine; soft; smooth; clear, or fair; as a delicate skin.

2. Nice; pleasing to the taste; of an agreeable flavor; as delicate food; a delicate dish.

3. Nice in perception of what is agreeable; dainty; as a delicate taste; and figuratively, nice and discriminating in beauty and deformity.

4. Nice; accurate; fine; soft to the eye; as a delicate color.

5. Nice in forms; regulated by minute observance of propriety, or by condescension and attention to the wishes and feelings of others; as delicate behavior or manners; a delicate address.

6. Pleasing to the senses; as a delicate flavor.

7. Fine; slender; minute; as a delicate thread.

8. That cannot be handled without injury or danger; that must be touched with care; as a delicate point or topic; a delicate question.

9. Composed of fine threads, or nicely interwoven; as a delicate texture; hence, soft and smooth to the touch; as delicate silk.

10. Tender; effeminate; not able to endure hardship; very impressible to injury; as a delicate frame or constitution.

11. Feeble; not sound or robust; as delicate health.

DELICATE, n. Any thing nice; a nicety.

Delicately - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

DELICATELY, adv.

1. In a delicate manner; with nice regard to propriety and the feelings of others.

2. Daintily; luxuriously.

They that live delicately are in kings courts. Luke 7.

3. With soft elegance; as an expression delicately turned.

4. Tenderly; with indulgence in ease, elegance and luxury. Prov 29.

del'-i-kat, del'-i-kat-li (`edhen, `anogh; en truphe): "Delicate" usually an adjective, but once a substantive (Jer 51:34 the King James Version). "He hath filled his belly (the Revised Version (British and American) "maw") with my delicates." the Revised Version (British and American) retains the word, but the American Standard Revised Version very properly has replaced it with "delicacies." In Sirach 30:18, the Revised Version (British and American) agatha, "good things." The adjective seems to have two meanings, though not easily distinguished:

(1) tenderly reared, and

(2) wanton or voluptuous. In De 28:54,56; Isa 47:1; Jer 6:2, "luxurious" or "daintily bred" would certainly be nearer the original than "delicate." "Delicate children" of Mic 1:16, the King James Version, is changed by the Revised Version (British and American) to "children of thy delight," i.e. beloved children, rather than children begotten in passion. The adverb "delicately" is employed in the same sense as the adjective (La 4:5; Lu 7:25). In the old English writers "delicate" is often used for voluptuous: "Dives for his delicate life to the devil went" (Piers Ploughman). The meaning of "delicately" (ma`adhan) in 1Sa 15:32 (the King James Version) is a real puzzle. The King James Version reads, "And Agag came unto him delicately," with a possible suggestion of weakness or fear. the American Standard Revised Version and the Revised Version, margin substitute "cheerfully." Others, by metathesis or change of consonants in the Hebrew word, translation "in bonds" or "fetters."

W. W. Davies