Other forms: delicatessens
A delicatessen is a shop selling fine cheeses, cold meats and prepared foods. Buy it at the delicatessen.
It is usually shortened to deli, which is now far commoner than the full word. A delicatessen was originally German and Jewish immigrant food in American cities.
1noundelicatessenA shop selling fine cheeses, cold meats and prepared foods.
“The delicatessen on the corner had forty kinds of olive.”
delicatessen is a shop.
The German behind it is delicacy, and the delicate in it is the delicate you already know. A delicatessen is the shop of delicate food.
hooks ontodelicate
German Delikatessen is the plural of Delikatesse, a delicacy, from French delicatesse.
Latin
delicatus — alluring
French
délicatesse
German
Delikatessen
English, today
delicatessen
Built from
First attested 1864. From German Delikatessen, plural of Delikatesse (“delicacy, fine food”), at the time also spelled Delicatesse, from French délicatesse, from délicat (“fine”), from Latin delicatus (“alluring”). The sense of store is more recent, originating in ellipsis from the common attributive use, as in delicatessen shop, delicatessen store, etc.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA