gourmand

English

WOTD – 2 March 2010

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English gourmaunt, gormond, gromonde, from Old French gormant (a glutton, noun), from gormant (gluttonous, adjective), of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɡʊə.mənd/, /ˈɡʊʁmɑ̃/
    • (file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ɡɔɹˈmɑnd/, /ˈɡʊɹ.mɑnd/
  • Rhymes: (US) -ɑnd

Noun

gourmand (plural gourmands)

  1. A person given to excess in the consumption of food and drink; a greedy or ravenous eater.
    • 1603 (first performance; published 1605), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Seianus his Fall. A Tragœdie. []”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: [] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act I, page 365:
      I knew him, at Caivs trencher, when for hyre, / He proſtituted his abuſed body / To that great gourmond, fat Apicivs;
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 5:
      The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. [] But there was not a more lascivious reprobate and gourmand in all London than this same Greystone.
  2. A person who appreciates good food.
    • 2000, Endymion Wilkinson, “Agriculture, Food, and the Environment”, in Chinese History: A New Manual, Rev. & enl. edition, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 636:
      The third key was the number of demands from different patrons or groups for their own specialized cuisines. Such patrons included the court, rich households, and scholar-gourmands. Buddhists and Muslims also elaborated their own cuisines (sucai 素菜 and qingzhen 清真).

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

French

Etymology

From Middle French gourmant (glutton), originally an adjectival form, from Old French, where it had the sense of trencherman, but of uncertain ultimate origin.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡuʁ.mɑ̃/
  • (file)
  • Homophone: gourmands
  • Hyphenation: gour‧mand

Adjective

gourmand (feminine gourmande, masculine plural gourmands, feminine plural gourmandes)

  1. eating a lot
  2. (more recently) having a love for good food, demanding of food quality

Noun

gourmand m (plural gourmands, feminine gourmande)

  1. a person who eats a lot, or who has refined tastes in food

Usage notes

The French and English usages of this word are false friends. While the English word has evolved to emphasize the excesses of a gourmand, the French word has become more associated with refined tastes in food. See also gourmet, which has considerable overlap with this word.

Descendants

  • Czech: gurmán
  • Portuguese: gourmand
  • Romanian: gurmand

Further reading

Norman

Etymology

From Old French, where it had the sense of trencherman, but of uncertain ultimate origin.

Adjective

gourmand m

  1. (Jersey) greedy

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French gourmand.

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ɡuʁˈmɐ̃/

Noun

gourmand m or f by sense (plural gourmands)

  1. gourmand (person who appreciates good food)
  2. gourmand (person who eats too much)
    Synonym: comilão

Further reading

Swedish

Noun

gourmand c

  1. someone who enjoys eating a lot of (good) food; a gourmand

Declension

Declension of gourmand 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative gourmand gourmanden gourmander gourmanderna
Genitive gourmands gourmandens gourmanders gourmandernas

See also

References

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