taster

Forms

taster (present participle tastant; past participle tasté; first-person singular present tast)^[1]

• taister, taistir, tastier, tastir, tauster^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tastō,^[1][3] a contraction of *taxitō, the frequentative of Latin taxō (“to touch sharply”),^[4][5] itself an intensive of tangō (“to touch”).^[6][7] Its Romance cognates are Italian tastare, Old Occitan tastar and Catalan tastar, which in Old Occitan and some Italian dialects keep the meaning "to taste".^[8]

Meyer-Lübke explained the word instead as a blend of the verb for touching with gustō (“to taste”), because of that sense;^[8] the DHLF finds the blend unnecessary.^[6] Gamillscheg rejects the objection that the frequentative should have given a form with ⟨ai⟩, since /ks/ before a consonant had already become /s/ in Vulgar Latin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are Anglo-Norman: Greimas dates the word to the Oxford Psalter, about 1120, and the AND's first citation is of the first half of the 12th century.^[9][2] The DHLF dates the intransitive use about 1120 and the transitive one about 1130.^[6] The Jeu d'Adam, of the second half of the century, has the first person tastai.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant touching, feeling and groping, as in Taste as chevez, si ad trovez "he gropes at the head of the bed and finds", in Partonopeus de Blois, and also trying, testing and touching in a hostile way.^[11][12] In Old French it often meant tasting as well:^[3] Erec et Enide has Amis, fet il, or an tastez .I. petit de ces pastez froiz "Friend, he says, now taste a little of these cold pies".^[13] Middle French kept "to touch, to feel",^[14] and modern French tâter means to feel or probe.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – the Oxford Psalter, by Greimas's dating.^[9]
• 1100–1150 – the AND's first citation.^[2]
• 1133–1166 – the Charroi de Nîmes, the earliest dated text in the DEAF's references.^[15]
• 1146–1199 – tastai in the Jeu d'Adam.^[10]
• c. 1170 – tastez "taste" in Erec et Enide.^[13][16]

Meanings

Verb

1. to touch, feel, handle; to examine by touch.^[2][12]
2. to grope, search by feeling.^[12][11]
3. to caress, fondle.^[2]
4. to hit, strike; to touch in a hostile way.^[1][12][9]
5. to try, test, put to the proof.^[2][12]
6. to taste, sample.^[13][2][12]
7. to smell.^[12]
8. to sound the depth of water.^[2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the verb from the first half of the 12th century, with the spellings taister, taistir, tastere, tastier, tastir and tauster.^[2] Its insular senses include palpating as a physician, testing a person, sounding a body of water and tasting wine or beer for quality.^[2] Rothwell notes that insular taster could mean to examine by feeling, and links it with English taste and test, whose arrival in modern French he calls a re-borrowing.^[17] Middle English tasten comes from the Old French verb, partly also from Medieval Latin.^[18] The English verb is recorded from about 1300.^[19]

Descendants

• Middle French taster (→ French tâter)^[1]
• Middle English tasten (borrowed; → English taste)^[1]
• Middle Dutch tasten (borrowed; → Dutch tasten)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the AND and the DÉCT head the word taster, the DMF and the TLFi tâter.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. taster
3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 666
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/1:140
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 889
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. tâter
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. tangō
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8595
9. ^ a b c Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. taster
10. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. AdamN
11. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
12. ^ a b c d e f g Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 10:135
13. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. taster
14. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. taster
15. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. taster
16. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. ErecF
17. ^ Rothwell, William (1993), « The Legacy of Anglo-French: faux amis in French and English »; reprinted on the Anglo-Norman Hub, anglo-norman.net
18. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
19. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com