good-tasting
Meaning
Having a pleasant or enjoyable flavor.
Structure
Usage
The chef prepared a simple but good-tasting meal.
They market the drink as a healthy and good-tasting alternative to soda.
For a quick snack, it was surprisingly good-tasting.
Etymology
The compound adjective "good-tasting" is a transparent modern English formation. Its first element, "good," descends from the Proto-Germanic gōdaz, a fundamental term for something fitting, suitable, or possessing desirable qualities. The second element, "tasting," derives from the verb "taste," which entered English via Old French and carries the core sense of perceiving or sampling flavor. The compound logically combines these elements: something that is "good" in its act or quality of "tasting," directly describing a pleasant sensory experience of flavor. This pattern is productive in English, creating straightforward descriptors like "sweet-smelling" or "bad-tasting."
Analysis
- good: From Old English gōd, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch goed and German gut. Functions as an adjective indicating a positive quality or standard. - tasting: From the verb taste, from Old French taster, of uncertain ultimate origin, possibly from a blend of Latin taxare ("to touch, assess") and tangere ("to touch"). The suffix -ing forms the present participle, here used adjectivally to mean "performing the action of."