gusto

Gusto comes from Italian gusto (taste, flavor), from Latin gustus (a tasting, the sense of taste). The Latin root also gives English 'gustatory,' 'disgust' (the opposite of taste), and 'degust' (to taste carefully). In Italian and Spanish, gusto retains its primary meaning of taste — both literal (the taste of food) and figurative (aesthetic taste, good judgment). 'Buon gusto' is good taste. 'Cattivo gusto' is bad taste.

English borrowed gusto in the early seventeenth century with the meaning of 'individual taste or liking.' Samuel Pepys used it in this sense. By the eighteenth century, the meaning had shifted from 'taste' to 'zest' or 'enthusiasm' — eating with gusto meant eating with evident pleasure, and the extension from eating to any activity followed naturally. Doing anything 'with gusto' means doing it with visible, hearty enjoyment.

The shift from 'taste' to 'enthusiasm' is characteristically English. English already had 'taste' and 'flavor.' It did not have a single word for the specific kind of enthusiasm that is physical, visible, and slightly excessive — the enthusiastic eating, the full-bodied laughter, the wholehearted commitment. Gusto filled that gap. The word names not just enjoyment but the demonstration of enjoyment.

The Miller Lite advertising campaign of the 1970s used the tagline 'Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less.' — but an earlier Miller campaign (the High Life brand) used 'the Champagne of Bottle Beer' and, more relevantly, promoted drinking 'with gusto.' The word appeared on beer advertising for decades. The Italian word for taste became an American word for the way you should drink a beer.