gourmand
English
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/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /ɡɔɹˈmɑnd/, /ˈɡʊɹ.mɑnd/
- Rhymes: (US) -ɑnd
Noun
gourmand (plural gourmands)
- 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.
- A person who appreciates good food.
- 2000, Endymion Wilkinson, “Agriculture, Food, and the Environment”, in Chinese History: A New Manual[1], 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
- (person given to excess consumption): glutton, trencherman, see also Thesaurus:glutton
- (person who appreciates food): chowhound, gastronaut, gourmet
- (person with a special interest or knowledge of food): foodie
Derived terms
Translations
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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/
Audio (Paris): (file) Audio (Switzerland (Valais)): (file) Audio (France (Vosges)): (file) Audio (France (Vosges)): (file) Audio (France (Lyon)): (file) Audio (France (Somain)): (file) - Homophone: gourmands
- Hyphenation: gour‧mand
Adjective
gourmand (feminine gourmande, masculine plural gourmands, feminine plural gourmandes)
- eating a lot
- (more recently) having a love for good food, demanding of food quality
Noun
gourmand m (plural gourmands, feminine gourmande)
- 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
Further reading
- “gourmand”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Norman
Etymology
From Old French, where it had the sense of trencherman, but of uncertain ultimate origin.
Adjective
gourmand m
Portuguese
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French gourmand.
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /ɡuʁˈmɐ̃/
Noun
gourmand m or f by sense (plural gourmands)
Further reading
- “gourmand”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
Swedish
Noun
gourmand c
- someone who enjoys eating a lot of (good) food; a gourmand
Declension
| nominative | genitive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | indefinite | gourmand | gourmands |
| definite | gourmanden | gourmandens | |
| plural | indefinite | gourmander | gourmanders |
| definite | gourmanderna | gourmandernas |