Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs: a cross-linguistic study

3.5. Taste 
The sense of taste is interesting from an etymological point of view. The English 
verb taste and its cognates have given rise to a great deal of discussion as experts do not 
agree on whether it comes from Lat *taxitare or whether it has an onomatopoetic origin. 
The proto-form suggested is IE *g’heus. This form is present in words for ‘taste’ 
in Greek genomai and Latin (Romance) gustâre. However, in Germanic and Celtic it 
appears in words which are related to ‘to try’ or ‘to choose’, for example, Gothic kiusan 
‘to make trial of’, OE ceosan ‘to choose’. Finally, in Indo-Iranian languages it appears in 
words linked to ‘to enjoy’, such as Skt jus- ‘to enjoy’, ‘to be pleased’. Buck (1949:1030) 
states that the direction of semantic shift is not clear because the development could 
have equally gone from ‘taste’ > ‘try, choose’ > ‘enjoy’ or from ‘try’ > ‘taste’ > ‘enjoy’. 
95
Michelena ([1985] 1990: 292) and Mujika (1982: 209) argue that the s- in susmatu is an 
expressive s-, which added to the verb usmatu. Susmatu nowdays does not mean ‘to smell’, but ‘to 

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B. Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 
Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs 
101
The central verb of taste in Modern English is taste and in Basque, dastatu. 
Spanish does have an archaic word related to the two: tastar. The etymological origin of 
these words and their cognates in other languages is uncertain and has brought about 
much discussion and disagreement among linguists. The following is a brief review of 
this issue.
One of the proposals is that these verbs come from Vulgar Latin *tastâre. This 
word would be the result of a merge between tangere ‘to touch’ and gustâre ‘to taste’. 
The DCECH rejects this origin because tangere and gustâre were not synonyms in Latin 
and it is very difficult for two words with different meanings to be blended. 
Another proposal is that they come from Vulgar Latin *taxitâre > taxâre. 
According to Ernout and Meillet (1959), taxâre, with the meaning ‘to touch firmly and 
often’, is not a typical word either in Romance or in Latin literature. It could have been a 
pseudo-etymological fictitious word created by Aulo Gelio, because taxâre, which 
means ‘to tax, to evaluate’ or ‘to reprimand, to censor’, does not come from tangere ‘to 
touch’ but from Greek tassei. To this explanation, the DCECH adds the fact that the 
development *taxitâre > tâter would only be phonetically possible in French, because 
the other Romance languages would not have allowed a syncope, either after the voicing 
of the -t- or in any case. 
Finally, the last approach proposes an onomatopoeic origin: tas-tas. The DCECH 
considers this origin as the only sensible one. The fact that the meaning ‘to knock’ 
appears in all Romance languages in their first stage seems to be reason enough to 
accept this view. In Modern Italian the verb tastare keeps the meaning ‘to touch’ (for 
example in the case when a blind person is feeling his way with a stick; cf. Sp andar a 
tientas ‘to feel one’s way’). 
It is difficult to decide which of these proposals is the correct one. Based on the 
meanings that this group of words had and now retain, the relationship between touch 
and taste becomes very evident. Although the DCECH states that the change from the 
meaning ‘to feel (one’s way)’ to ‘to taste’ is very easy from an ideological point of view 
suspect’. However, the fact that this verb is formed from the noun (s)usma ‘smell’ makes it very 
interesting as an example of the direction that semantic change follows, i.e. from concrete to abstract. 

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B. Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 
Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs 
102
(as ‘to taste’ is lexicalised by different words related to physical and spiritual sensations 
in many languages) this change is not so straight forward.
The main verb of taste in English is taste. It comes from OFr taster ‘to touch’, ‘to 
feel’. When this loan was first introduced into Middle English it kept some of these 
meanings related to the sense of touch, but now these are archaic. Another interesting 
point in this verb is that according to the OED, it could also refer to the perception by 
some other sense, i.e. smell. Smack is no longer used very much, however, it was the OE 
word for the sense of taste. OE smaec ‘taste, flavour’, hence smecgan ‘to taste’, is 
related to OHG smoc (> MHG smacken > G. schmacken ‘to taste’). Although its main 
meaning is ‘to have a distinctive flavour or taste’, it can also refer to the sense of smell, 
when it refers to the characteristic smell or taste of something (To smack of the sea 
(
COL
)). 
It seems that Basque has borrowed the words to express taste from other 
languages (i.e. Romance). The main verb of the sense of taste is dastatu. The etymology 
of this verb is discussed above, however, we may add to that information what Agud and 
Tovar (1989-) established as its direct source. These authors agree with the DCECH on 
the fact that these verbs do not come from Lat. *tastâre, but that dastatu comes from 
Romance, in particular from Old Occitanian tastar ‘to taste’. Azkue (1905) also supports 
this idea. Dastatu was present in the language from an early stage, for example it is 
already found in Etxepare (1545). From all the examples I have reviewed, it seems that 
Basque took this verb only with the meaning ‘to taste’ in the physical and figurative 
sense. This verb has a rich dialectal diversity. In the Northern side dasta- was the only 
form until the 19
th
century. By the middle of the 19
th
century the variant jasta- is found 
used with the same frequency, but by the end of the century this form has superseded the 
former one. The Souletin dialect uses txeste. In the South dasta- is the only form found 
until the 20
th
century. From the 1920’s onwards other variants are also used: jasta-,