Origin and history of taste

c. 1300, tasten, "perceive the flavor of" (something); "take a little food or drink; try the quality or flavor of;" from Old French taster "to taste, sample by mouth; enjoy" (13c.), earlier "to feel, touch, pat, stroke" (12c., Modern French tâter), from Vulgar Latin *tastare, which is apparently an alteration (perhaps by influence of gustare "to taste, take a little of") of taxtare, a frequentative form of Latin taxare "evaluate, handle" (see tax (v.)).

Also from c. 1300 in English as "to touch, to handle." From early 14c. as "have experience or knowledge of" (of bliss, bitterness, etc.). The meaning "exercise the sense of taste" is recorded from late 14c.

In reference to substances, "have a certain taste or flavor," from 1550s (displacing native smack (v.3) in this sense). Another PIE root in this sense was *geus- "to taste; to choose" (as in gustare, also gusto, disgust).

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). [Carl Darling Buck, "A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages," 1949]

Related: Tasted; tasting.

early 14c., "act of tasting," also "sense of touch," from Old French tast (Modern French tât), from taster "to taste, sample by mouth" (see taste (v.)).

It is attested from late 14c. as "a small portion given;" also "faculty or sense by which the flavor of a thing is discerned." Also from late 14c. as "savor, sapidity, flavor; inherent property of matter perceptible by special organs in the mouth."

The meaning "aesthetic judgment, artistic sensibility, faculty of discerning and appreciating what is excellent" is attested by mid-15c. (for the sense extension, compare French goût, German geschmack, Russian vkus, etc.). Taste in English is attested by early 14c. as "the discriminative faculty" in a spiritual sense.

The sense of "fact or condition of liking or preferring something, inclination" is from late 14c. 

Of all the five senses, 'taste' is the one most closely associated with fine discrimination, hence the familiar secondary uses of words for 'taste, good taste' with reference to aesthetic appreciation. [Buck]

Taste is active, deciding, choosing, changing, arranging, etc.; sensibility is passive, the power to feel, susceptibility of impression, as from the beautiful. [Century Dictionary]