ABSTRACT
Taste and smell, associated as they are with physical appetite, with the mundane processes of fuelling and evacuating the body and with a shorter distance between the object of desire and its perception, tended to occupy a lower rank in the hierarchy of the senses than sight and hearing. From a Proto-Indo-European root that signified "perceive", for example, came both Latin sapor "flavour" and sapientia "wisdom". The word for "palate", palatum, was used of physiological and aesthetic perception alike. As with other Western civilizations till the nineteenth century, there seem to have been few discriminators beyond the four main flavours: sweet, sour, sharp and salty. However, though there is no word for it, the Romans had their fifth taste, umami, too. The power of taste as a metaphor was not restricted to links between the physical senses and aesthetics. The Romans labelled their wider surroundings and life experiences with sensory vocabulary.
