Etymology Dictionary

TASTE,  to handle, to try, to try or perceive by the touch of the tongue or palate, to eat a little of, to experience.  (F.,—L.)   The sense of feel or handle is obsolete, but the M.E. tasten meant both to feel and to taste.   'I rede thee let thin hond upon it falle, And taste it wel, and ston thou shalt it finde;' Chaucer, C. T. 15970.   'Every thyng Himseolf schewith in tastyng;' King Alisaunder, 4042.—F. taster, to taste or take an assay of; also, to handle, feele, touch;' Cot.   Mod. F. tâter; Ital. tastare, 'to taste, to assaie, to feele, to grope, to trye, to proofe, to touch;' Florio.   We find also Low Lat. taxta, a tent or probe for wounds; whence Ital. tasta, 'a tent that is put into a sore or wound, also a taste, a proofe, a tryall, a feeling, a touch;' Florio.   β. The Low Lat. taxta is short for taxita*, and points clearly, as Diez says, to a Low Lat. verb taxitare*, not found, but a mere iterative of Lat. taxare, to feel, to handle (Gellius).   This taxare (= tactare*) is an intensive form of tangere (pp. tactus), to touch; see Tact, Tangent.   Hence the orig. sense of taste was to keep on touching, to feel carefully.   Der. taste, sb., M.E. taste, Gower, C.A. iii. 32, l. 21; tast-er, tast-able, taste-ful, taste-ful-ly; taste-ful-ness, taste-less, -less-ly, -less-ness; tast-y, tast-i-ly.