different between zest vs delight

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French zeste.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /z?st/
• Rhymes: -?st

Noun

zest (countable and uncountable, plural zests)

1. The outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish.

   The orange zest gives the strong flavor in this dish.

2. General vibrance of flavour.

   I add zest to the meat by rubbing it with a spice mixture before grilling.

   • 1959, Peter De Vries, The Tents of Wickedness, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., “The Treehouse,” Chapter 7, p. 92,^[1]

     He rolled his own cigarettes from a sack of Bull Durham, spilling flakes into his beer, which no doubt gained in zest thereby.

   • 1978, Joseph Singer et al. (translators), Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer, New York: Fawcett Crest, Part One, Chapter Five, 1, p. 99,^[2]

     Bashele’s dishes tasted as good as they had when I was a child. No one could give to the borscht such a sweet-and-sour zest as Bashele.

3. (by extension) Enthusiasm; keen enjoyment; relish; gusto.

   Auntie Mame had a real zest for life.

   • 1728, Edward Young, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire II in The Works of the Reverend Edward Young, London: P. Brown, H. Hill & S. Payne, 1765, Volume I, p. 85,^[3]

     Almighty vanity! to thee they owe

     Their zest of pleasure, and their balm of woe.

   • 1807, Thomas Cogan, An Ethical Treatise on the Passions, Bath: Hazard & Binns, Part 1, Disquisition 1, Chapter 1, Section 1 “On the utility of the Passions and Affections,” p. 51,^[4]

     Liberality of disposition and conduct gives the highest zest and relish to social intercourse.

   • 1928, D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1995, Chapter 9, p. 101,^[5]

     Once started, Mrs. Bolton was better than any book, about the lives of the people. She knew them all so intimately, and had such a peculiar, flamey zest in all their affairs, it was wonderful, if just a trifle humiliating to listen to her.

   • 1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York: Dell, 1963, Book Two, Chapter 2, p. 221,^[6]

     The singers, male and female, wore blue jeans and long hair and had more zest than talent.
4. (rare) The woody, thick skin enclosing the kernel of a walnut.
   • 2006, N. J. Nusha, On the Edge (Short Stories), Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, p. 85,

     The green zest of walnuts was used by the women to shine their teeth and it also gave a beautiful rust colour to their lips.

Synonyms

• (enthusiasm): gusto, relish
• (general vibrance of flavour): punch, spice, tang, zing

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

zest (third-person singular simple present zests, present participle zesting, simple past and past participle zested)

1. (cooking) To scrape the zest from a fruit.
2. To make more zesty.
   • 1792, James Cobb, The Siege of Belgrade, a Comic Opera, in Three Acts, page 47:

     Strains ?o artle?s tho’ we proffer,
     Hearts o’er flowing zest the offer.

Derived terms

• zester

References

Anagrams

• Tsez

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /z?st/

Noun

zest m (plural zests)

1. zest (of a fruit)

Further reading

• “zest” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Swedish

Noun

zest c

1. zest; the outer skin of a citrus fruit

Declension

English

Etymology

An unetymological spelling, in imitation of words like light, might, etc.; the analogical modern spelling would be delite; from Middle English delite, from Old French deleiter, deliter, from Latin delectare (“to delight, please”), frequentative of delicere (“to allure”); see delectation and delicate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??la?t/, /d??la?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Noun

delight (countable and uncountable, plural delights)

1. Joy; pleasure.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 18.2,^[1]

     A fool hath no delight in understanding.

   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III, Scene 2,^[2]

     […] the isle is full of noises,

     Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:delight.
2. Something that gives great joy or pleasure.
   • 1580, Greensleeves,

     Greensleeves was all my joy / Greensleeves was my delight, […]

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 5, lines 17-19,^[3]

     […] Awake

     My fairest, my espous’d, my latest found,

     Heav’ns last best gift, my ever new delight,

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:delight.

Derived terms

• undelight
• delightful

Translations

Verb

delight (third-person singular simple present delights, present participle delighting, simple past and past participle delighted)

1. To give delight to; to affect with great pleasure; to please highly.
   • 1842, Tennyson, Le Morte d’Arthur:

     Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:delight.

2. (intransitive) To have or take great pleasure.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Again?t venemous tongues enpoy?oned with ?claunder and fal?e detractions &c.:

     A ?claunderous tunge, a tunge of a ?kolde,
     Worketh more mi?chiefe than can be tolde;
     That, if I wi?t not to be controlde,
     Yet ?omwhat to ?ay I dare well be bolde,
     How ?ome delite for to lye, thycke and threfolde.

   • 1580, Greensleeves:

     For I have loved you well and long, / Delighting in your company.

   • 1908, T.J. Griffths, The Cambrian (volume 28, page 504)

     He was an eisteddfodwr and delighted to hear good singing, whether it was in the sanctuary or at the eisteddfodic gatherings.

Derived terms

• delight in
• duping delight

Related terms

• delicacy
• delicate
• delicatessen
• delicious

Translations

Further reading

• delight in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• delight in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• gildeth, glideth, lighted