It's the Word of the Day podcast for May 30th.

Today's word is gust, spell G-U-S-T. Gust is a noun. It refers to a sudden, strong wind.

It's also used figuratively for a sudden outburst of something such as a feeling.

Here's the word used.

In a sentence from the Mail on Sunday of London by Robert Gore Langton,

this subversive comedy is now a posh panto directed by Max Webster.

It gets gusts of laughter, but can feel rather forced, and the joyous language

is left to fend for itself. You're no doubt familiar with the breezy gust, meaning a brief

burst of wind, but about a century and a half before that word first appeared in print in the late

16th century, a different gust blew onto the scene.

The windy gust likely comes from a synonymous old Norse word, Guster. Whereas the older gust,

which refers to the sensation of taste as well as to a feeling of enthusiastic delight,

comes ultimately from Gustus, the Latin word for taste.

English speakers eventually mostly dropped that older gust, replacing it in the early 17th century

with a similar Gustus word, borrowed from Italian, gusto is now the go-to word when you want to

refer to enthusiastic and vigorous enjoyment or appreciation.

You can use it with gusto.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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