praegusto

Forms

praegustō (present infinitive praegustāre, perfect active praegustāvī, supine praegustātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + gustō (“to taste”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan takes gustō as an intensive built on an old past participle Proto-Italic *gusto- (“tasted”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵ(e)us- (“to taste”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit जोषति (jóṣati, “to enjoy”) and Ancient Greek γεύομαι (geúomai, “to taste”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Ovid and Livy on.^[3] In Ovid's Amores someone is told to push back any food that the husband (vir) has tasted first, quod praegustāverit ipse.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It meant to taste food or drink before someone else, in the manner of a food taster: Pliny the Elder has the participle praegustantēs as a noun for the tasters,^[5] and Livy reports as a prodigy that mice had nibbled the olives first.^[2] Seneca used it figuratively of having a foretaste of pleasures.^[2][5] A second sense was to take a little of something beforehand, honey against catarrh in Pliny,^[2] and in Juvenal the antidotes of the thrice-defeated king of Pontus.^[2][6] The Vulgate uses it of meat that beasts have tasted first.^[7]

Wiktionary lists Italian pregustare and French prégoûter among its descendants.^[1]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of food a husband tastes first.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy reports mice that had tasted olives first as a prodigy.^[2][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of having a foretaste of pleasures.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of taking honey beforehand.^[2][8]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of taking antidotes in advance.^[2][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of potions tasted first.^[2][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of meat that beasts have tasted.^[7][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To taste first or before another.^[2][7][6]
2. (figurative) To have a foretaste of.^[2][5]
3. To eat or drink a little of beforehand; to take (an antidote) in advance.^[2][6][9]

Word family

• praegustātor

Related words

• gustō
• gustus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier