gusto

Forms

gusto m (plural gustos)^[1] Old Spanish had the popular form gosto, in the Siete Partidas (1256–65), the General estoria and the Cancionero de Baena.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin gustus (“tasting; taste”).^[4][5][6][1] It replaced the popular Old Spanish gosto; the learned word has a more abstract meaning.^[1][7] Corominas notes that Portuguese (Portuguese gosto), French (French goût) and Old Occitan (Old Occitan gost) have the popular form, while Spanish, Italian gusto and Catalan gust have the learned one.^[4][8] He rejects Meyer-Lübke's view that the Latin vowel was long: the Portuguese form and Old Spanish gostar point to a short ⟨u⟩.^[4]

gustus goes back to a Proto-Italic *gustus and to Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus, from a root meaning “to taste”.^[1][9] De Vaan relates it to Ancient Greek γεύομαι (geúomai, “to taste”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (kiusan, “to test”) and Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (kustus, “test”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in Alfonso X's Setenario (c. 1252–1270, in an early 14th-century copy): good fruit tastes good a los que an gusto conplido e çierto “to those whose sense of taste is full and sure”.^[3] The first record in a contemporary manuscript is in the Castigos of 1293, on things that seem sweet to the sick, who han el gusto desenordenado “have a disordered taste”.^[3] Corominas dated the form gosto to about 1400, in the Cancionero de Baena, and gusto to 1490, in Alfonso de Palencia.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense of taste and the flavour of things are the oldest senses.^[3][10] Nebrija equated the word with Latin gustatio and gustatus, and gave gusto como de salva, the tasting of food for a lord, as degustatio.^[11][12] The sense “delight, pleasure” is a Spanish innovation unknown to the other Romance languages, and frequent already in the Quijote;^[4] Saint Teresa distinguished gusto from contento.^[4] Covarrubias recorded the saying that there is no disputing about tastes, De gustos dizen que no a que disputar.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives the sense, the flavour of things and “pleasure, delight or desire”.^[14] Terreros applied it to the appreciation of a cloth or a colour, and by 1884 the Academy defined it as the faculty of perceiving beauty.^[15][16] The verb gustar followed the noun: from “to taste” it came to mean “to take pleasure in” (1599) and finally “to please” (1734).^[5]

Gómez de Silva derives the English word gusto from Spanish.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1252–1270 – Alfonso X's Setenario (in a later copy) has gusto for the sense of taste.^[3]
• 1256–1265 – the Siete Partidas have the popular form gosto.^[2]
• c. 1275 – the General estoria has gosto.^[3]
• 1293 – the Castigos of BNM ms. 6559 have gusto.^[3]
• c. 1400 – gosto in the Cancionero de Baena, the first record in the DCECH.^[4]
• 1490 – gusto in Alfonso de Palencia.^[4][5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives gustatio and gustatus.^[12]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[18]
• c. 1570 – the derivative gustoso is first recorded.^[5]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records De gustos dizen que no a que disputar.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin gustus and the aesthetic sense.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. taste, the bodily sense by which flavours are perceived.^[6][1]
2. The flavour of a thing.^[6][1]
3. pleasure, delight: Lo haré con mucho gusto.^[6][1]
4. One's own will or choice: a gusto, por gusto.^[6][1]
5. The faculty of appreciating beauty and ugliness; good taste: tener buen gusto.^[6]
6. The quality that makes something beautiful or ugly: de mal gusto.^[6]
7. The style of an art or literature in a given country or period.^[6]
8. Each person's way of judging things, a preference: sobre gustos no hay nada escrito.^[6][1]
9. A whim, a fancy; an amusement.^[6][1]
10. A liking or inclination for something.^[6]

Word family

• gustoso
• gustillo
• gustosamente
• regusto

Related words

• gustar
• degustar
• disgustar
• gustativo
• Latin gustus
• Portuguese gosto

Usage notes

Mucho gusto and tanto gusto are said on being introduced to someone.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. gusto
3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. gusto
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 291
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gusto
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. gusto
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3174
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. gusto
11. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 359
12. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. gusto
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 954
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. gusto
15. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 254
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 549
17. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 341
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. gusto