Where does “distasteful” come from?
Distasteful derives from English distaste, combining the prefix dis- from Latin dis- with English taste, which comes from Old English -ful and ultimately traces to Proto-Indo-European roots meaning to spread or divide.
distasteful (English): Having a bad or foul taste; Unpleasant; Offensive
Definitions
- Having a bad or foul taste; Unpleasant; Offensive
Ancestry of “distasteful”, step by step
distasteful traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English distaste
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | distaste | A feeling of dislike, aversion or antipathy;... |
| 2 | English | taste | One of the sensations produced by the tongue in... |
| 3 | Middle English | tasten | To taste; To partake in or ingest; To examine by... |
| 4 | Old French | taster | to taste; to touch; to hit; to strike |
| 5 | Vulgar Latin | tastare | to touch, feel; present active infinitive of... |
| 6 | Latin | taxāre | — |
| 7 | Latin | Taxus | yew |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | εἶδος | That which is seen: form, image, shape;... |
| 9 | Spanish | -scopio | -scope |
| 10 | Latin | -scopium | — |
| 11 | Ancient Greek | σκοπέω | I look, look at, behold; I examine, inspect; 413... |
| 12 | Ancient Greek | σκοπός | watcher, lookout; protector, guardian; spy, scout |
| 13 | Ancient Greek | σκέπτομαι | I look at, examine; I examine, consider, think |
| 14 | Proto-Hellenic | sképťomai | to look at |
| 15 | Proto-Indo-European | spéḱyeti | to be looking at, to keep looking at |
| 16 | Proto-Indo-European | speḱ- | to see, to look, to observe |
via English ful
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | ful | — |