gusto [E17th] If you do something with gusto, you do it with real relish or enjoyment. The word is borrowed from Italian, and came from Latin gustus ‘taste’, source also of disgust [L16th]. One of its early meanings was ‘a particular liking for something’, as in this line from William Wycherley’s play Love in a Wood (1672): ‘Why should you force wine upon us? We are not all of your gusto.’ This sense eventually dropped out of use, with the ‘keen enjoyment’ sense becoming common from the beginning of the 19th century.