Dainty means small, delicate and pretty. A dainty teacup, dainty steps, dainty fingers.
It praises smallness and fineness together, and it is used far more of women, food and china than of anything else — which gives it a slightly dated flavour. Of an appetite it means fussy: a dainty eater. As a noun, a dainty is a delicacy. Note that dainty and dignity are the same Latin word, dignitas: what was worthy became what was choice became what was merely small.
1adjectivedaintySmall, delicate and pretty.
“She served tea in dainty china cups painted with tiny roses.”
dainty is a quality of delicacy.
Old French deintié comes from Latin dignitatem, worth. Dignity is the same word borrowed again, so dainty and dignity are doublets that ended up very far apart.
Proto-Indo-European
*deḱ-
Latin
dignitātem
Old French
deintié
Middle English
deynte
English, today
dainty
From Middle English deynte (as noun), from Old French deintié, from Latin dignitātem. a doublet of dignity.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA