Distasteful means unpleasant and offensive. A distasteful joke, find it distasteful, distasteful behaviour.
It objects on grounds of taste rather than morality, which makes it a restrained word: calling something distasteful is a considered disapproval rather than an outburst. It suits jokes, advertisements and remarks. Note distaste, which is the noun; and that distasteful is about what offends and tasteless is about what shows no judgement, though the two are often used for each other.
1adjectivedistastefulUnpleasant and offensive.
“Many viewers found the advert distasteful because it made fun of a tragedy.”
synonyms: offensive, unsavoury
distasteful is a quality of offensiveness.
Distaste plus -ful, or dis- plus tasteful. Taste came from Old French taster, to touch or try, and the sense of judgement is a metaphor from the tongue.
From distaste + ful or dis + tasteful.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA