In my recent French class, my professor shared an interesting tidbit about the origin of the English word gout, which refers to a type of arthritis. She mentioned that it comes from the French word goût, meaning “taste”, due to its association with extravagant appetites. While I didn’t want to interrupt the class, I couldn’t help but notice a small error in her explanation. The presence of a circumflex over the u in French actually signifies the removal of the letter s after the vowel. If the word had transitioned from Old French to English, it would have been spelled as goust. The word goût itself originates from an Old French term spelled goust, derived from the Latin word gustus, meaning “taste”. On the other hand, the English term gout stems from Old French gote and Latin gutta, which translates to “drop of liquid”. This is because, in ancient times, the disease was believed to be caused by an excess of bodily humors that would seep into the blood in droplets from the joints.
