delicious: [13] The underlying meaning of delicious is ‘tempting, luring one aside from the straight and narrow’. It comes via Old French delicious from late Latin dēliciōsus, a derivative of Latin dēlicia ‘delight’. This in turn was formed from dēlicere ‘entice away’, a compound verb made from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and lacere ‘lure, deceive’ (source also of English elicit and related to lace, lasso, and possibly latch).
Latin dēlectāre, a derivative of dēlicere denoting repeated action, produced Old French delit, source of English delight [13], and Italian dilettante, literally ‘lover’, borrowed by English in the 18th century in the positive sense ‘someone who takes delight in fine art’. => delight, dilettante, elicit, lace, lasso
delicious (adj.)
c. 1300 (implied in deliciously), from Old French delicios (Modern French délicieux), from Late Latin deliciosus "delicious, delicate," from Latin delicia (plural deliciae) "a delight, allurement, charm," from delicere "to allure, entice," from de- "away" (see de-) + lacere "lure, deceive" (related to laqueus "noose, snare;" see lace). As a name of a type of apple, attested from 1903, first grown by Jesse Hiatt of Iowa, U.S.A. Colloquial shortening delish is attested from 1920.
