English
taste
Taste comes from Old French taster ‘to taste, touch’, from Vulgar Latin *tastāre, from Latin taxō ‘to touch sharply’, probably from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to touch’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-‘to touch’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtaxō‘to feel, touch sharply’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*taxitārereconstructed
- Vulgar Latin, derivedc. 100–700 CE*tastāre‘to touch or feel’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400taster‘to taste; to touch’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tasten‘to taste’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599taste
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-‘to touch’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtaxō‘to feel, touch sharply’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*taxitārereconstructed
- Vulgar Latin, derivedc. 100–700 CE*tastāre‘to touch or feel’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400taster‘to taste; to touch’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tasten‘to taste’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599taste
Earliest quotation: c. 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar: “Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The…”
The story
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. Almost fully displaced native smack, from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (‘taste, smatch’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to touch’
contact, integrity, contingent, integrate, tangible, attain, tame, contiguous, taxis, tangent, taxonomy, tactile, contagion, tact, talon, contaminate, tama, ataxia, talus, thwack, 30 more
Today it means
noun One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- / taste