gustare

Forms

gustare (first-person singular present gùsto, first-person singular past historic gustài, past participle gustàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (alternatively when intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gustāre (“to taste, take a little of”), a verb formed on gustus (“taste”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The earliest Italian record has the form Old Italian gostare.^[7][8] DEI classes the Italian verb as a learned word, and also notes the sense “to have a light meal” in outlying dialects such as Friulian gustà and central Ladin gosté.^[9]

The verb is panromance: French goûter, Occitan gostar, Catalan gustar, Spanish gustar, Portuguese gostar, Sardinian bustare (“to have lunch”) and Romanian gusta.^[2][10][11] The French and Romanian verbs also gave nouns for a meal, and French ragoût is a derivative.^[10]

In Latin, de Vaan explains the Latin verb as an intensive built on the old past participle stem *gusto- “tasted”, which replaced the old present of the root; the root is Proto-Indo-European *ǵ(e)us- (“to taste”).^[12] DEI compares Festus's gloss Latin degūnere, explained as “to taste”, with the same root before a nasal suffix.^[9][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, in the form gostare, with the senses “to savour food with pleasure” and, figuratively, “to enjoy spiritually”.^[8][7] Dante (1304–1308) uses it for perceiving a flavour.^[8][13]

Semantic evolution

The sense of enjoyment, of food and of things of the mind, runs through the history of the word: Dante has gustò di quella pace (“tasted of that peace”) in the Paradiso, and Petrarch speaks of a bitter fruit that, when tasted, wounds more than it comforts.^[5][14] By the 16th century it could be said of appreciating the beauties of good writers.^[14]

The intransitive sense “to please, be to one's liking” is first recorded about 1565 in A. Cornaro, and is now mostly found in limited or negative phrases.^[8][6] The pronominal gustarsi stresses enjoyment.^[5][3] Old senses such as “to understand thoroughly” have gone out of use.^[5] German borrowed the word as gustieren (1728), in the language of food and wine.^[13][1]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses gostare for savouring food and for spiritual enjoyment.^[8][7]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses gustare for perceiving a taste.^[8]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for savouring food or drink with pleasure.^[8][13]
• About 1565 – A. Cornaro uses it intransitively, “to please”.^[8]
• 1728 – German gustieren is recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To taste, perceive the flavour of something: Con questa febbre non sento il sapore di niente, non riesco a gustare il pane.^[7][3][5]
2. To taste a little of a food or drink to try its flavour; to sample: Prima di servirlo, gusta un cucchiaio di sugo.^[7][3][6]
3. To eat or drink with pleasure, to savour; also gustarsi: Mi sono gustato una fetta di crostata.^[7][3][5]
4. (figurative) To enjoy, appreciate: gustare un concerto, gustare la pace del lago.^[7][5][6]
5. (intransitive, colloquial) To please, be to one's liking: Questa proposta non mi gusta molto.^[7][3][6]

Word family

• gustativo
• gustatore
• gustatorio
• gustazione
• gustabile
• gustevole
• rigustare

Related words

• gustarsi
• gusto
• degustare
• pregustare
• Latin gustus

Usage notes

Intransitive gustare takes avere or essere.^[1][5][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1893
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET