"Delighted"

I incline to think that the word *delighted* in Shakspeare represents the Latin participle *delectus* (from *deligere*), "select, choice, exquisite, refined." This sense will suit all the passages cited by MR. HICKSON, and particularly the last. If this be so, the suggested derivations from the adjective *light*, and from the substantive *light*, fall to the ground: but MR. HICKSON will have been right in distinguishing Shakspeare's *delighted* from the participle of the usual verb *to delight, delectare*=gratify. The roots of the two are distinct: that of the former being *leg-ere* "to choose…