distaste

Today's word quite simply refers to a personal disinclination towards something. The fact that it does so by referring to taste endows the word with a sense of how visceral and inexplicable such aversions tend to be. We shrink from foods we dislike, they cause us to make faces, but we are often unable to articulate exactly why. We can generally put our finger on why certain tactile, visual or audial sensations are unpleasant, but taste is more elusive. I hate peanut butter, but love peanuts. Use of the word "distaste" to describe one's entire array of aversion amplifies the sense of arbitrariness that governs our preferences. It also serves to excuse revulsion when it would otherwise be rude. "There's no accounting for taste," is the common phrase, I believe, that forgives such reactions by placing them out of one's hands.