dilectus

Perfect passive participle of dīligō (“I esteem, love, select”).

dīlēctus (feminine dīlēcta, neuter dīlēctum, superlative dīlēctissimus); first/second-declension participle

1. having been esteemed, loved, beloved
   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Proverbs.31.2:

     quid dīlēctē mī quid dīlēctē uterī meī quid dīlēctē vōtōrum meōrum

     What, O my beloved, what, O the beloved of my womb, what, O the beloved of my vows? (Douay-Rheims trans., Challoner rev.; 1752 CE)

First/second-declension adjective.

• Portuguese: dileto
• Spanish: dilecto

From dīligō (“I esteem, love, select”) +‎ -tus (action noun suffix), literally “selection”.

dīlēctus m (genitive dīlēctūs); fourth declension

1. selection, choice, distinction
2. levy, draft, conscription

   Multis de causis Caesar maiorem Galliae motum expectans per Marcum Silanum, Gaium Antistium Reginum, Titum Sextium legatos dilectum habere instituit

   Caesar, expecting for many reasons a greater commotion in Gaul, resolves to hold a levy by the means of M. Silanus C. Antistius Reginus, and T. Sextius, his lieutenants.

   (Caesar, De bello gallico, VI 1)

3. enlistment

Fourth-declension noun.

• “dilectus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dilectus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dilectus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to hold a levy: dilectum habere
    
• “dilectus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “lego, -ere”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 332