gust

Forms

gust n (plural gusturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gustus (“taste”), from Proto-Italic *gustus and Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus (“taste”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} It survives in Aromanian as gustu and in Istro-Romanian as gust.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian gusto, Spanish gusto, Portuguese gosto, Catalan gust, Occitan gost and French goût, and Albanian has gust.^[2][6] Ciorănescu adds that some literary uses were strengthened by the French word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649, where a form gust glosses Slavonic “I taste”.^[9][10] MDA2's first record is Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), and Tiktin quotes from it Din gustul merelor mulți bolnavi se tămăduiră “from the taste of the apples many sick people were healed”.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Cantemir speaks of rivers with the tastiest fish, peștele cel mai cu gust.^[9] In the 19th century the word took on the aesthetic sense: C. Negruzzi's rooms are mobilate cu gust “furnished with taste”, and Maiorescu writes of gust literar.^[9][11] Colloquial speech uses it for a passing wish or mood: nu am gust de glumă “I am in no mood for jokes”.^[9]

Timeline

• 1649 – gust in Mardarie's lexicon.^[9][10]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, MDA2's first record.^[4][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sense of taste, the sensation a food or drink produces on the tongue, and the flavour that produces it: un gust amar.^[3][1]
2. (figurative) The ability to appreciate beauty in nature or art: îmbrăcată cu gust “tastefully dressed”.^[3]
3. An inclination or preference.^[3]
4. Pleasure, desire, appetite for something.^[3][12]

Word family

• gusta
• gustos

Related words

• Aromanian gustu
• Latin gustus

Usage notes

Cu gust means “tasty” or “tastefully”, fără gust “tasteless” and de prost gust “in bad taste”.^[3] A da de gustul unui lucru is “to get a taste for something”.^[3] A saying runs Gusturile nu se discută “there's no accounting for taste”.^[9] A rare regional gust means the month of August: like agust it continues Latin augustus, and the DA explains its form by folk etymology after gusta, August being the month when fruit is tasted.^[13][2][1] MDA2 dates it to Hasdeu's Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae (1886).^[4] Another regional gust is a form of îngust “narrow”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. gust
3. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 455
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1033
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 64
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3927
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 509
8. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 227
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gust
10. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. gust
11. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. gust
12. ^ Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. s.v. gust
13. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. gust 2