# Does every language have a synonym for tasty?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 6, 2004, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893 "2004-06-06T01:59:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kingspades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingspades)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/1 "2004-06-06T01:59:30Z")
As my wife and I were enjoyed our _muy sabroso_ lunch at On the Border today, I considered the word “tasty.” Thinking about it, “tasty” doesn’t convey any more information than does the word"good," but it only applies to food. I wondered if every other language has a synonym for “tasty” that follows these two rules:
1. It generally only applies to food or the sense of taste.
2. It has few, if any, meanings outside the realm of food.
Spanish gives us _sabroso_, while Japanese provides _oishii_. What others are there?
---
### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/2 "2004-06-06T02:11:41Z")
Delicieux, savoureux, gouteux (from the most common to the most rarely used word), and possibly some others I can’t think about right now in french.
---
### Author:  [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/3 "2004-06-06T02:38:52Z")
I believe it is _köstlich_ in German.
---
### Author:  [@rookie523](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rookie523)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/4 "2004-06-06T04:53:02Z")
In korean it is “ma shee suh”
---
### Author:  [@IKinSpelGud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IKinSpelGud)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/5 "2004-06-06T05:12:53Z")
In German you say, “Das smeckt mir gut,” literally, “That tastes me good.”
---
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/6 "2004-06-06T05:13:18Z")
In Hebrew: “Ta’im”.
---
### Author:  [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/7 "2004-06-06T06:25:02Z")
“Smakelijk” in Dutch
“Lekker” would be the more usual thing to say, but “lekker” can be used for other things; Weather, a tasty female - or man, etc. It can even be meant sarcasticly. Like: “Lekker is that”, when meaning quite the opposite.
But when you have a bite out of a delicious chocolate cake, you usually say: “Mmmmm, Lekker!” _::drool::_🙂
---
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/8 "2004-06-06T06:26:41Z")
If the English (who are notoriously bad at the whole food thing) managed to come up with ‘tasty,’ I imagine all cultures did. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/9 "2004-06-06T06:32:25Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> If the English (who are notoriously bad at the whole food thing) managed to come up with ‘tasty,’ I imagine all cultures did. 😉
😃😃😃
---
### Author:  [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/10 "2004-06-06T06:40:47Z")
Slight nitpick, but “tasty” _does_ have some figurative usage outside of food, in the sense of “pleasant, agreeable, attractive.”
Back in the 80’s, it was pretty a pretty common expression amongst my just-out-of-high-school crowd, as in “a tasty three minute song like their last single” (quotes from the OED).
---
### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/11 "2004-06-06T06:52:08Z")
In China, the word is “hao tze” which literally translates to “good eat”
---
### Author:  [@karomon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/karomon)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/12 "2004-06-06T10:57:06Z")
Polish: smaczne, smaczny or smaczna, depending on what kind of noun you’re describing.
---
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/13 "2004-06-06T11:01:57Z")
> [@Quixotic](#):
>
> Slight nitpick, but “tasty” _does_ have some figurative usage outside of food, in the sense of “pleasant, agreeable, attractive.”
I had a friend in high school who used it in a sense somewhat like that, and sometimes I still do it. I doubt he knew it was also popular in the 80s.
---
### Author:  [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/14 "2004-06-06T11:24:13Z")
Finnish has ‘maukas’ which derives from ‘maku’ much the same way as tasty from taste. Pretty commonly used too, and only applies to food.
---
### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/15 "2004-06-06T11:30:32Z")
Are we considering tasty distinct from, say, delicious? To me, while it says ‘good food’ it has connotations of ‘with lots of taste.’ I would be more likely to describe a curry than an ice-cream as tasty, though I would understand if I read that.
---
### Author:  [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/16 "2004-06-06T12:46:44Z")
“gostoso” in Portuguese. Like "lekker"or “tasty”, it can also be used to describe people, events, basically anything that causes pleasure.
---
### Author:  [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/17 "2004-06-06T12:57:08Z")
In Tagalog (Filipino) it’s _masarap_ and it does specifically mean “tasty.”
---
### Author:  [@RindaRinda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RindaRinda)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-language-have-a-synonym-for-tasty/248893/18 "2004-06-06T23:07:03Z")
In Singlish, it’s _shiok_, pronounced “shee-oak.”