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), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Seianus his Fall. A Tragœdie. []”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: [] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, OCLC 960101342, 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 731476803, 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.

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

  • gourmand” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

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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