taste

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   delicate discrimination, especially of aesthetic values

   Arrogance and lack of taste don't often lead to rapid success in life.

2. 2
   noun

   a brief experience of something

   I got a taste of life on the wild side in the big city.

3. 3
   noun

   a small amount eaten or drunk

   take a taste--you'll like it

4. 4
   verb

   experience briefly

   The ex-slave tasted freedom shortly before they died.

5. 5
   verb

   perceive by the sense of taste

   Can you taste the garlic?

6. 6
   verb

   distinguish flavors

   We tasted wines last night

7. 7
   verb

   have flavor

   taste of something

8. 8
   verb

   have a distinctive or characteristic taste

   This tastes of nutmeg

Etymology

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. Almos…