different between tact vs taste

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin t?ctus. Sense “keen perception” developed in French tact.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tækt/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

tact (countable and uncountable, plural tacts)

1. The sense of touch; feeling. [from 1650s]
   • 1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More; or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society

     Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?

   • 1881, Joseph LeConte, Sight: An Exposition on the Principles of Monocular and Binocular Vision

     Now, sight is a very refined tact.

2. (music) The stroke in beating time.
3. Sensitive mental touch; special skill or faculty; keen perception or discernment; ready power of appreciating and doing what is required by circumstances; the ability to say the right thing. [from early 19th c.]

   Synonyms: sensitivity, consideration, diplomacy, tactfulness

4. (slang) Clipping of tactic.
   • 2006 "Block Party", Corner Gas

     Wanda "Hey, can you show us?"
     Karen "No"
     Brent "We promise not to make fun of you."
     Karen "No"
     Lacey "Okay, we promise TO make fun of you."
     Karen "I'm getting a drink"
     Lacey "I was trying a different tact."
     Wanda "Bad tack."

5. (psychology) A verbal operant which is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus (such as an object, event, or property of an object) and is maintained by nonspecific social reinforcement (praise).
   • 2013, Jacob L. Gewirtz, William M. Kurtines, Jacob L. Lamb, Intersections With Attachment

     Skinner (1957) saw such tacts as responses that are reinforced socially.

Derived terms

• tactful
• tactless

Translations

Verb

tact (third-person singular simple present tacts, present participle tacting, simple past and past participle tacted)

1. (psychology) To use a tact (a kind of verbal operant; see noun sense).

Further reading

• tact on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• tact in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• tact in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

References

Anagrams

• Catt

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French tact.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?kt/
• Hyphenation: tact
• Rhymes: -?kt

Noun

tact m (uncountable)

1. tact, discernment

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tactus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /takt/

Noun

tact m (plural tacts)

1. tact

Related terms

• tactile

Further reading

• “tact” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Alternative forms

• tast (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English tasten, borrowed from Old French taster, from assumed Vulgar Latin *tast?re, from assumed Vulgar Latin *taxit?re, a new iterative of Latin tax?re (“to touch sharply”), from tangere (“to touch”). Almost displaced native Middle English smaken, smakien (“to taste”) (from Old English smacian (“to taste”)), Middle English smecchen (“to taste, smack”) (from Old English smæ??an (“to taste”)) (whence Modern English smack), Middle English buri?en (“to taste”) (from Old English byrigan, birian (“to taste”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /te?st/
• Rhymes: -e?st

Noun

taste (countable and uncountable, plural tastes)

1. One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.

2. The sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.

3. A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.
4. (countable and uncountable) A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc.

   • "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."
5. Personal preference; liking; predilection.

6. (uncountable, figuratively) A small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.
7. A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.

Synonyms

• (sensation produced by the tongue): smack, smatch; See also Thesaurus:gustation
• (set of preferences): discernment, culture, refinement, style
• (personal preference): See also Thesaurus:predilection
• (small amount of experience): impression, sample, trial

Hyponyms

• (sensation produced by the tongue): relish, savor

Meronyms

• (sensation produced by the tongue): bitter, salty, sour, sweet, umami

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

taste (third-person singular simple present tastes, present participle tasting, simple past and past participle tasted)

1. (transitive) To sample the flavor of something orally.

   • when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine

2. (intransitive, copulative) To have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavour is distinguished.

   The chicken tasted great, but the milk tasted like garlic.

3. To experience.

   I tasted in her arms the delights of paradise.

   They had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.

   • He […] should taste death for every man.
4. To take sparingly.
   • 1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Drydentastes%20of%20pleasures%2C%20youth%20devours%22&f=false

     Age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.

5. To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.

   • I tasted a little of this honey.

6. (obsolete) To try by the touch; to handle.

Synonyms

• (sample the flavor of something): smack, smake; See also Thesaurus:taste
• (have a taste): hint, smack; See also Thesaurus:have taste

Translations

Further reading

• taste in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• taste in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• taste at OneLook Dictionary Search
• "taste" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 313.

Anagrams

• Satet, State, Testa, Tetas, aetts, atest, state, teats, testa

Danish

Etymology

From the noun tast.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ast?

Verb

taste (imperative tast, infinitive at taste, present tense taster, past tense tastede, perfect tense har/er tastet)

1. To type

Conjugation

Derived terms

• indtaste

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

taste

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of tasten

German

Pronunciation

Verb

taste

1. inflection of tasten:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

taste (imperative tast, present tense taster, passive tastes, simple past and past participle tasta or tastet, present participle tastende)

1. to type (on a computer keyboard or typewriter)

Related terms

• tast (noun)
• tastatur

References

• “taste” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• tast, taist

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French tast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta?st/, /tast/

Noun

taste (uncountable)

1. perceived flavor

Descendants

• English: taste
• Yola: taaste, tawest, thaaste

References

• “t??st(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

taste (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. vocative singular of tast