gosto

Forms

gosto m (plural gostos, diminutive gostinho)^[1] Wiktionary records the older spelling gôsto.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gustus (“taste, tasting”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gosto in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss notes that the Latin noun also meant a small portion taken to taste.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician gosto, Catalan gust, Occitan gost, French goût, Italian gusto and Romanian gust.^[4][1] García de Diego records the same form in popular Castilian, and considers Spanish gusto a learned form.^[5]

The Latin word is from *gustus, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus (“taste”).^[1] De Vaan derives it from an aorist root *ǵ(e)us- (“to taste”), with a noun suffix.^[6] Ancient Greek γεύομαι (geúomai, “to taste”) belongs to the same root.^[7] The verb gostar is not formed from the noun: it continues gustō (“to taste”), and desgosto is a back-formation from desgostar.^[8][9]

In Portugal the noun is also used for a “like” on social media, a sense Wiktionary takes as a semantic loan from English like; in this sense it is pronounced with an open /ɔ/.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century from the slips of the index of medieval Portuguese, and Cunha to the 15th.^[2][3] The Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) has it several times.^[10] The passage quoted in Lorenzo's chronology, from a 16th-century Soliloquio, uses o meu gosto de dentro da minha alma for an inner delight of the soul.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first dictionaries give mostly the sense of pleasure: Cardoso (1569) glosses gosto with Latin voluptas “pleasure”, and Pereira (1697) has gosto, ou deleite.^[12][13] Bluteau (1712) begins with the sense of taste, and Folqman (1755) separates the sense, the flavour of food and contentment.^[14][15] Morais (1789) adds sound judgement in matters of the mind, the root of today's sense of aesthetic taste.^[16]

Houaiss lists, after the sense and the flavour, appetite, personal preference, good taste, a style or fashion (ao gosto romântico) and, in Ceará, a tip.^[2][17] The sense “a like” on the Internet is recent and Portuguese only.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, in Houaiss's dating.^[2]
• c. 1430 – gosto in the Horto do Esposo.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it as voluptas “pleasure”.^[12]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines the sense of taste and gives Latin phrases for it.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records ter gosto “to have discernment” in intellectual matters.^[16]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists taste, flavour, pleasure, judgement, elegance and manner.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sense of taste, by which flavours are told apart; the palate.^[2][19][1]
2. Flavour, the sensation a substance produces in the mouth.^[2][19][1]
3. Appetite, the wish to eat.^[2]
4. Pleasure, satisfaction, liking: com gosto “gladly”.^[2][19][1]
5. A personal preference, opinion or judgement.^[2][19]
6. Aesthetic sense; good taste, elegance.^[2][20][1]
7. A manner, style or fashion.^[2][19]
8. (Ceará) A tip, gratuity.^[2][17]
9. (Portugal, Internet) A like, a mark of approval given to a post on social media.^[1]

Word family

• gostoso
• gostosura
• gostinho
• contragosto
• antegosto

Related words

• desgosto
• gostar
• desgostar
• degustar
• gustativo
• Latin gustus
• Galician gosto
• Spanish gusto

Usage notes

The proverb gostos não se discutem (also gosto não se discute) “there is no arguing about tastes” is common.^[1]

Morais (1813) and Vieira also enter a noun gosto for the costus plant, from Latin costus.^[21][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gosto
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. gosto
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3927
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. gustus
6. ^ 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. gustus
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. gustus
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gostar
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. desgosto
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. gosto
11. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. gosto
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gosto
13. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gosto
14. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gosto
15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gosto
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 64
17. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. gosto
18. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 673
19. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. gosto
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4745
21. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 486
22. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 582