Appetibility

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌæpətɪˈbɪlɪti/

Definitions

1. The quality that indicates how inviting or tempting food appears to someone
2. The characteristic of food or drink that makes it attractive or desirable to eat or taste
3. The attribute of edibles that provokes hunger or craving through appealing taste or smell

Etymology: "Appetibility" is built from "appetible," itself from the Late Latin "appetibilis," meaning "desirable," which comes from the Latin verb "appetere," to strive after or long for. The Latin root combines "ad-," toward, with "petere," to seek or aim at, so the word's core idea is reaching toward something. English borrowed the adjective family from Latin, and the noun "appetibility" follows the same pattern as words like "possibility" and "visibility," adding "-ity" to an adjective ending in "-ible." The noun's close relative is the French "appétibilité," which carries the same sense and the same Latin ancestry. The word shares its base with "appetite," which passed through Old French from the same Latin verb, so the English noun and the more familiar "appetite" are cousins that arrived by different routes. "Appetibility" is a technical-sounding term, mostly used in discussions of food and flavour where it describes how enticing a dish looks or smells before anyone tastes it.

Synonyms: palatability, tastiness, appeal, deliciousness, savoriness

Antonyms: unpalatability, disgust, repulsiveness, unappetizingness, averseness