Etymologically
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disgust

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Pronunciation

  • /dɪsˈɡʌst/, /dɪsˈkʌst/[1]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Middle French desgoust (“strong dislike, distaste”), now dégoût,[2][3][4][5] though the OED, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English also allow Italian disgusto (“distaste”);[2][6][7] the verb is from desgouster (“to have a distaste for”), recorded in Estienne in 1539, or disgustare.[2][5][4] The French verb is formed from des- (“opposite of”) and gouster (“to taste”), now goûter,[2][3][8][9] from Latin gustō (“to taste”),[2][3][4] itself related to gustus (“taste”),[10][11][7] which Ayto calls the ultimate source of the English word gusto.[10] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *geus- (“to taste; to choose”),[3][12] and Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com link it with choose.[11][13] The OED thinks the French word itself probably came from Italian, and notes that the whole family appears in English only around 1600 and is not used by Shakespeare.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A strong dislike or repugnance: 1598, in Florio's Italian–English dictionary A Worlde of Wordes.[2][4] Merriam-Webster dates its sense of aversion to food to the same year,[11] while the OED's first quotation for that sense is from Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611.[2]

Semantic evolution

As its make-up implies, the word first meant "distaste": Etymonline dates the literal sense, an aversion to the taste of something, to the 1610s.[3] The verb at first meant "to dislike, loathe", with the person who feels the aversion as its subject, from 1601;[2][4] Etymonline quotes "It is not very palatable, which makes some disgust it" from the 1660s,[3] and Ayto one from Robert South's sermons (1716).[10] The reverse sense, "to cause nausea or loathing in", appeared by 1650,[2][4] or the 1640s according to Etymonline;[3] from 1656 the verb also meant "to offend the sensibilities of".[2] The old sense died out (the OED's last record is from 1873), and the meaning has hardened over the centuries from "displease" to "sicken, repel".[2][10][14] Johnson (1755) still defined the noun as "aversion of the palate" and "ill-humour; malevolence; offence conceived".[15] From the 1660s to 1761 a disgust could also be a falling-out or quarrel.[2] Burke (1757) used the verb without an object, "to be very distasteful".[2]

Timeline

  • 1598 – noun, a strong dislike, in Florio.[2][4][11]
  • 1601 – verb, to dislike, loathe (now obsolete).[2][4][11]
  • 1611 – noun, distaste for food; repugnance, in Cotgrave.[2]
  • 1650 – verb, to nauseate, to offend the taste or smell of.[2][4]
  • 1656 – verb, to offend the sensibilities of.[2]
  • before 1665 – noun, a quarrel or ill-feeling (obsolete by 1761).[2]
  • 1700 – disgust from, to deter by aversion.[2]
  • 1757 – verb without an object, in Burke.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A strong feeling of repugnance or loathing caused by something offensive: He turned away in disgust.[16][11][2]
  2. Strong distaste for food or a particular food; nausea.[11][2]
  3. (obsolete, before 1665–1761) Ill-feeling between people; a quarrel.[2][15]

Verb

  1. To cause loathing or nausea in; to sicken: The smell from the drain disgusted the neighbours.[16][11][2]
  2. To offend the moral sense, principles or taste of: His cruelty to the dog disgusted everyone.[16][11][2]
  3. (obsolete, 1601–1873) To dislike or loathe.[2][11][5]

Word family

  • disgusted
  • disgustedly
  • disgustedness
  • self-disgust
  • disgustful
  • disgusting
  • disgustingly

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins