taste

Pronunciation

• IPA: /teɪst/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English tasten (“to touch, examine by touch; to taste”),^[2][3] borrowed from Old French taster (“to feel, touch; to taste”) (French tâter),^[2][4] from Vulgar Latin *tastāre,^[2][4] apparently an alteration of *taxitāre, a frequentative of Latin taxāre (“to evaluate, handle”),^[2][4][3] perhaps under the influence of gustāre (“to taste”).^[2] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins take the Romance verb instead as a blend of tangere (“to touch”) and gustāre.^[5][6][7] The noun is from Old French tast “touch”, from the verb.^[2][4] It is related to tax and task.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To try or examine by touch, to feel: about 1290 in the OED, now obsolete;^[8] the noun “sense of touch” is from 1292.^[8] Etymonline dates the verb to about 1300 as “to perceive the flavour of”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

When first found the word also meant “touch”.^[6] Of experience, as of bliss or bitterness, it is from the early 14th century,^[2] and “to exercise the sense of taste” from the late 14th.^[2] “To have a certain flavour” is from the 1550s, displacing the native verb smack.^[2] The noun's “small portion”, “flavour” and “the sense of taste” are from the late 14th century,^[2] as is “liking, inclination”.^[2] Aesthetic judgment, discernment of what is excellent, is from the mid-15th century in Etymonline,^[2] but first recorded by Barnhart in Milton's Paradise Regained (1671);^[4] French goût, German Geschmack and Russian vkus took the same path.^[2] tasty is from 1617.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – to examine by touch.^[8]
• 1292 – noun, the sense of touch.^[8]
• c. 1300 – to perceive the flavour of.^[2]
• late 14th century – flavour; the sense of taste; liking.^[2]
• mid-15th century – aesthetic judgment.^[2]
• 1550s – to have a flavour.^[2]
• 1617 – tasty.^[4]
• 1671 – aesthetic judgment, in Milton.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The sense that perceives flavour through the tongue.
2. The flavour of something.
3. A small amount tasted; a brief experience: a taste of fame.
4. A liking or preference.
5. The ability to judge what is beautiful or fitting; discernment.

Verb

1. To perceive or test the flavour of.
2. To eat or drink a small amount of.
3. To have a particular flavour: it tastes of lemon.
4. To experience, especially for the first time.

Word family

• tastable
• tasteless
• tasty
• aftertaste
• distaste
• foretaste
• pretaste
• tasteful

Related words

• tax
• task
• gusto
• disgust
• smack

Usage notes

The Century Dictionary contrasted taste, which is active and chooses, with sensibility, which is passive, the power to feel.^[2]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press