Etymograph

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’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-1‘to touch’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtaxō1‘to feel, touch sharply’
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*taxitāre1reconstructed
  4. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*tastāre1‘to touch or feel’reconstructed
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400taster1‘to taste; to touch’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tasten1‘to taste’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599taste1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English taste
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar: “Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-Wiktionary, English taste‘to touch’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtaxōWiktionary, English taste‘to feel, touch sharply’
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*taxitāreWiktionary, English tastereconstructed
  4. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*tastāreWiktionary, English taste‘to touch or feel’reconstructed
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400tasterWiktionary, English taste‘to taste; to touch’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tastenWiktionary, English taste‘to taste’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599tasteWiktionary, English taste. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “taste”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- / taste

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