‖ goût, n.3
(guː)
Also 7–9 goust, 9 Sc. gou, goo.
[F. goût, earlier goust:—L. gustus taste. Cf. gust, gusto.]
= taste in various senses.
1. Flavour or savour (of food, etc.). † high goût: cf. haut-goût 1.
| 1751 Affect. Narr. Wager 97, I question if any Food we ever tasted at home had so high a Gout, as these four legged Animals, in that Day of Scarcity. 1753 L. M. tr. Du Boscq's Accomplish'd Woman III. 147 Hunger gives a goût to our daily food. 1817 Blackw. Mag. II. 305/1 There is a nameless gout in certain of the dishes done up here, that reminds me [etc.]. 1830 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 257 The beer spirit will have the abominable goût of the yest. 1870 Ramsay Remin. vi. (ed. 18) 247 Gou, taste, smell. |
2. Liking, relish, zest, fondness. Const. for.
| 1586 Mary Q. of Scots Let. to C. Paget 20 May in Tytler Hist. Scotl. (1864) IV. 118 If you see and perceive the same ambassador to haue goust in these overtures, and put you in hope of a good answer thereunto. 1729 Woodward's Fossils, Publ. to Rdr. p. vi, A Direction to any one that has a Goût for the like Studies. 1789 A. Burn Who fares best? (1810) 10 Relished a dish of fine-flavoured tea with as high a goût as you or any man ever did. a 1810 J. Henry Camp. agst. Quebec (1812) 73 Simpson warmed some of this in water, and ate with gout. To me it was nauseous. 1814 F. Burney Wanderer V. 375 A lad for whom he had a great goust. 1822 Sporting Mag. IX. 220 The public goût for the most licentious..songs. 1896 Crockett Grey Man xii. 86 Having..no goo for a minister meddling in the bickerings of men. |
3. The faculty of perceiving and discriminating savours; the faculty of aesthetic appreciation; one's individual judgement or predilection in such matters; also, nice perception, good taste.
| 1706 Art of Painting (1744) 348 There are three sorts of taste in painting. The natural gout, the artificial, and the gout of each nation. 1706 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 307 Paragraphs unagreeable and distasteful to the goust and palate of the..Presbyterians. 1739 Cibber Apol. (1756) II. 154 It seems the goust of that age was not so nice and delicate in these matters. 1741 P. Tailfer, etc. Narr. Georgia Pref. 9 We catch Fish with a Hook baited to their particular Goût. 1743 Fielding Wedding-Day iii. viii. Wks. 1771 III. 356 This last opera..is too light for my goût. 1747 Gentl. Mag. 202 The opinion of the cardinal was however so much to the goût of his majesty, that [etc.]. |
¶ b. One who affects taste.
| 1684 J. Haines Epil. to Lacy's Sir H. Buffon, French goûts, that mingle water with their wine, Cry, Ah de French song, gosoun, dat is ver' fine. |
4. Style or manner in which a work of art is executed, as judged by connoisseurs; also, a prevailing or fashionable style in matters of taste.
| 1717 Berkeley Tour in Italy Wks. 1871 IV. 523 His [Perugino's] drapering every one knows to [be] of a little gout. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) II. xlii. 55 We have more taste..than to relish the productions of such a miserable gout. 1751 Student I. 35 Learn'd in each goût, and vers'd in ev'ry fashion. |