Etymologically
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taste

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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

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