Delicatessen

A delicatessen is a shop selling delicacies and food specialities, and usually also prepared dishes to take away, as well as foreign or exotic culinary items such as fine cheeses. Delicatessen is often shortened to deli, with both that and the full word used also to refer collectively to products of the sort you would find in a delicatessen, with many cafes and now even supermarket counters advertising themselves as Deli.

The word comes to English from the plural of the German word Delikatesse, originally meaning in German a culinary delicacy, itself taken by German from the French term délicatesse, also meaning a delicacy, itself in turn taken from the original Italian term for a delicacy, namely delicatezza. The Italian word’s Latin root word delicat actually meant pleasurable or delightful, rather than delicate in the English language sense of fragile. Delikatessen shops sprang up in the German-speaking world in the 18th century, and from the mid 19th century in the United States delicatessen shops were opened by immigrants, leading to widespread use of the word in English-speaking countries.

A delikatesse is also a specialist breed of cucumber.