mistaste

English

Etymology

From Middle English mistasten, equivalent to mis- +‎ taste.

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈteɪst/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪsteɪst/

Verb

mistaste (third-person singular simple present mistastes, present participle mistasting, simple past and past participle mistasted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To overindulge in food or drink
2. (transitive, obsolete) To take wrongly or in error; mistake; err
   • 1790, George Sandys, A general history of the Ottoman Empire:

     I staid at Belgrade some weeks longer, but thought to go no more that way, and by this strange discovery I made hereby of womens temper, I resolv'd to bear in my memory two maxims of this country, which are, if I mistaste not, left as follows.

3. (transitive, archaic) To taste wrongly or in error
   • 2009, Jean-Luc Marion, The Visible and the Revealed - Page 131:

     The support provided by custom or by the oenological guide serves only to make it understood that one has not tasted the wine or, having mistasted it, that one perceived nothing or almost nothing.

Noun

mistaste (plural mistastes)

1. A wrong, bad, or illicit taste
   • 2014, Robin Hobb, The Farseer Trilogy 3-Book Bundle:

     Still, my palate was alive, questing for the slightest mistaste. But there was none.

2. (archaic) An error; mistake
   • 1973, Martin Fleisher, Radical Reform and Political Persuasion in the Life and Writings of Thomas More:

     A mistake is really a mistaste. The most striking use of the sense of taste is in More's choice of persuasio to characterize the basic way mind is moved and guided. This is not surprising.

Anagrams

• etatisms, misstate