Etymology
1. c.1290, "to touch, to handle," from O.Fr.
taster "to taste" (13c.), earlier "to feel, touch" (12c.), from V.L.
*tastare, apparently an alteration of
taxtare, a frequentative form of L.
taxare "evaluate, handle" (see tax). Meaning "to take a little food or drink" is from c.1300; that of "to perceive by sense of taste" is recorded from 1340. Of substances, "to have a certain taste or flavor," it is attested from 1552 (replaced native smack (n.1) in this sense).
Tasty is recorded from 1617; in late 18c. it also could mean "tasteful, elegant" (from the secondary sense of taste (n.)). For another PIE root in this sense, see gusto.
"The Hindus recognized six principal varieties of taste with sixty-three possible mixtures ... the Greeks eight .... These included the four that are now regarded as fundamental, namely 'sweet,' 'bitter,' 'acid,' 'salt.' ... The others were 'pungent' (Gk. drimys, Skt. katuka-), 'astringent' (Gk. stryphnos, Skt. kasaya-), and, for the Greeks, 'rough, harsh' (austeros), 'oily, greasy' (liparos), with the occasional addition of 'winy' (oinodes)." [Buck]
2. The verb is from Middle English tasten, borrowed from Old French taster (“to taste, touch or hit”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *tastāre (“to touch or feel”), from *taxitāre, an innovated iterative form of Classical Latin taxāre (“to touch sharply”), from tangere (“to touch, to grasp”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-, which is assumed to have had the same meaning as tangere.
3. The noun came from the verb, and the two conflated after English lost its infinitive suffix -en, though tasten was most likely already used nominatively (as a gerund), similar to Modern English tasting.
4. Almost fully displaced native smack, from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (“taste, smatch”).
5. Displaced English smatch, from Middle English smacchen, smecchen, from Old English smæċċan (“to taste; to smack”); displaced also Middle English buriȝen, from Old English bierġan (“to taste”). See: Old French '
taster'.
Verbs referencing "taste"
Sranan
tesi, German, old spelling
tasten, French
tâter, Irish
tástáil.