gourmand

English

Alternative forms

• gormand

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)

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 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 B M 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

• (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

• gourmandise
• gourmandism

Translations

See also

• gourmet

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 (France, Paris)

  (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

• “gourmand”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

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

See also

• frossare (“glutton”)
• gourmet
• matvrak (“a voracious eater”)

References

• gourmand in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• gourmand in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• gourmand in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)