1590s, perhaps a corruption of Italian deletto "delight," from Latin dilectio, noun of action from diligere "to esteem highly, to love" (see diligence). Or (less likely) of English diddle. "Curse Eunuke dilldo, senceless counterfet" ["Choise of Valentines or the Merie Ballad of Nash his Dildo," T. Nashe, c.1593] A classical Latin word for one was fascinum (see fascinate). In later English sometimes a French word, godemiche, was used (1879).