Palate, Pallette or Pallete?

That said, I think I did a pretty darn good job of pulling all that out of my back pocket with only one ... um, would you believe it's a typo?

Not a typo, just the wrong definition According to my dictionary, a pallette is "a plate in the armpit of a suit of armor". So you can add that to the list, although I doubt there will be much call to use it.

Well my dictionary shows a palette [3rd definition] as "a plate in the armpit of a suit of armor" so my dictionary is calling pallette a 'typo'.

However it also shows pallet alternatively as a straw mattress while conceding that its usage as a movable wooden [usually] base for storing packages is more usual.

Anyone know why we associate palate with taste? Tongue, or even mouth, would seem a lot more logical. And for that matter why "on the palate/nose"? As opposed to "under" or "in". Apart from the comic effect of phrases like "red cherry on the nose" I cannot see much to recommend the use of "on".

Anyone know why we associate palate with taste? Tongue, or even mouth, would seem a lot more logical.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that we took it from the French palais. Some writers do use 'mouth' but many editors don't like this thinking it is too crude an expression; however to use 'tongue' would be incorrect because palate/mouth implies the whole experience of the basic tastes and more interesting flavours on the tongue plus the tactile sensations like tannin or alcohol in(on?) the mouth.

Also, now we use terms like 'mid-palate' or 'end of the palate' and these would sound odd substituted by 'mouth'.

Then

And for that matter why "on the palate/nose"? As opposed to "under" or "in". Apart from the comic effect of phrases like "red cherry on the nose" I cannot see much to recommend the use of "on".

This is so much harder - I think it is part of the perpetual struggle that writers have to find an imaginative way to describe the full taste sensations of wine. I hope someone else can come up with something better than this.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that we took it from the French palais.

Just checked in the OED. It says it is "popularly considered as the seat of taste" and gives sources going back to the 16th C. And it comes from the Latin Palatum, and (indeed) the French Palais. There's also an obsolete English word "palace". Still begs the question of why the roof of the mouth. Perhaps the importance of the retronasal passages has long been known.

I suppose "the seat of taste" is another strange phrase if taken too literally