gusto

Forms

gusto m (plural gusti)^[1] An old form is Old Italian gosto.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gŭstus (“a tasting; taste, flavour”).^[3][4][5][1] Latin formed from it the verb gustō (“to taste”), which gave Italian gustare.^[3][6]

The word is panromance: Romanian gust, Friulian gust, French goût, Occitan gost, Catalan gust, Spanish gusto, Portuguese gosto, and Sardinian bustu (“midday meal”).^[4][7] The Latin short ⟨ŭ⟩ would normally give Italian ⟨o⟩, and the old form gosto exists.^[2] DEI and GRADIT explain the ⟨u⟩ of the Italian word by the influence of the verb, while the GDLI treats the word as learned, like the Spanish and Catalan words, against the popular French, Occitan and Portuguese forms.^[8][5][2]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *gustus, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus (“taste”).^[1] De Vaan reconstructs it as *ǵus-tu-, from the root *ǵews- (“to taste”); the same root gave Ancient Greek γεύομαι (geúomai, “to taste”) and Old English cēosan (“to choose”), the source of the English word choose.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, in the sense “the sense of taste”: one of the senses through which nothing is felt without pleasure, odore a nare e a gusto savore (“smell to the nostrils and flavour to the taste”).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Pleasure came early: gusto meant “delight, satisfaction” in Iacopone, before 1306, and Dante used it for the sensation a food leaves on the palate.^[3] The sense “flavour” is from the 14th century (Cicerchia).^[3]

The figurative senses of judgment followed in the Renaissance: a personal way of feeling and judging things (Pulci, before 1484), a sensitivity to beauty (Ariosto, 1516), and the ability to judge the merits of a work of art (Buonarroti, before 1564).^[3] Marino spoke of the gusto del secolo in 1624, the taste of an age, a school or an author.^[3] DEI traces the aesthetic sense to a metaphor probably of Spanish origin, and DELI cites Croce's remark that the word, though known before, became popular in the 18th century as never before;^[8][3] gusto as elegance is in Verri, 1777.^[8][3] Salvini, before 1729, called the derivative gustoso a Hispanism, absent from the old authors.^[3]

English took gusto from Italian in the 1620s, after an earlier, obsolete loan of French guste; it was very common from the early 19th century.^[9] German has had Gusto since the 17th century, with Austrian gustiös “appetizing”.^[10]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses gusto for the sense of taste.^[3][2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for pleasure, satisfaction.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the sensation of a food's flavour.^[3]
• Before 1484 – Pulci uses it for a personal way of judging things.^[3]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses it for a sensitivity to beauty.^[3]
• 1620s – English gusto is first recorded.^[9]
• 1624 – Marino writes of the gusto del secolo.^[3]
• 1777 – Verri uses gusto for elegance.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. taste, the sense by which flavours are perceived, chiefly through the taste buds of the tongue.^[5][11][12]
2. flavour: un sorbetto al gusto di mandarino.^[5][12][13]
3. (in the plural, colloquial) Aromatic herbs and spices used in cooking.^[5][11]
4. Enjoyment of food or drink; relish: mangiare di gusto.^[5][11][13]
5. (figurative) Pleasure, satisfaction in doing something;^[5][11][14] prenderci gusto, to come to enjoy something;^[5][11][14] che gusto!, often ironic.^[5][11][14]
6. (figurative) A whim or desire: levarsi il gusto di, to indulge oneself in something.^[5][11][12]
7. (often in the plural) Personal preference, inclination: sui gusti non si discute.^[5][11][13]
8. Aesthetic discernment, a sense of beauty and elegance: buon gusto, cattivo gusto.^[5][12][13]
9. The style or taste of an age, school or artist: gusto barocco.^[12][3]

Word family

• disgusto
• disgustare
• disgustoso
• gustoso
• gustosità
• gustativo
• retrogusto

Related words

• gustare
• degustare
• degustazione
• Latin gustus
• French goût

Usage notes

The proverb tutti i gusti son gusti says that every taste is legitimate.^[13] English gusto means “zest, relish”, a sense taken from the Italian word.^[9][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1894
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana