English

Noun

delectus ‎(plural delectuses)

1. (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.

Latin

Etymology

Perfect passive participle of dēligō ‎(“[I] pick off; select”).

Participle

dēlectus m ‎(feminine dēlecta, neuter dēlectum); first/second declension

1. picked off, having been picked off, plucked off, having been plucked off; culled, having been culled
2. chosen, having been chosen, selected, having been selected

Inflection

First/second declension.

Noun

dēlectus m ‎(genitive dēlectūs); fourth declension

1. selection, choice, distinction
2. levy, recruiting

Inflection

Fourth declension.

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
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “delectus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: 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