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Added 8 October 2026

taste

/teɪst/ noun

In Latin: gustātus, sapor Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about taste at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
He had a strange taste in his mouth.
The sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.
His taste was impaired by an illness.
A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.

verb

To sample the flavor of something orally.
To have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavor is distinguished.
The chicken tasted great, but the milk tasted like garlic.
To identify (a flavor) by sampling something orally.
I can definitely taste the marzipan in this cake.

adjective

Deliberate misspelling of tasty.

Origin

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. 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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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