Degust

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To sample food or drink with careful, appreciative attention to its flavor
2. To taste something slowly and with relish, judging its quality by the palate
3. To partake of a dish or beverage in order to savor and assess its flavors

Etymology: "Degust" is a word meaning to taste or savour food and drink, and it came into English straight from French "déguster," which itself comes from Latin "degustare," meaning to taste or sample. The Latin root was built from "de-," here meaning thoroughly or completely, and "gustare," to taste, the same root behind English "gust" in its old sense of relish and "gusto." English also has a close relative, "degustate," which arrived from the same Latin source by a separate route. Words like this that share an origin but reach a language at different times and through different channels are called doublets. In this pair, "degust" carries the French-borrowed form, while "degustate" keeps a shape closer to the Latin original, so the two words are cousins that took different paths into English.

Synonyms: taste, sample, savor, relish, sip