gourmet

English Online Dictionary. What means gourmet‎? What does gourmet mean?

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French gourmet, from Middle French gourmet, from Old French groumet (“wine broker, valet in charge of wines, servant”) from groume, grommes (“wine-taster, manservant”), apparently from Middle English grom, grome (“boy, valet, servant”), from Old English *grōma (“male child, boy, youth”), akin to Old English grōwan (“to grow”). Cognate of Spanish grumete and Catalan grumet. More at groom.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡʊɹˈmeɪ/, /ˈɡʊɹmeɪ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʊəmeɪ/, /ˈɡɔːmeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Adjective

gourmet (not comparable)

1. (of food and drink) Fine; of superior quality. [from 1820]

Usage notes

Gourmet has become somewhat debased by marketing usage, and is considered by some a pretentious middlebrow term. Such users tend to prefer terms such as artisanal (emphasizing the craft) for fine food.

Coordinate terms

• artisanal

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

gourmet (plural gourmets)

1. A connoisseur in eating and drinking; someone who takes their food seriously.

Usage notes

Gourmet emphasizes interest in quality of food and enjoyment of eating, sometimes to an obsessive degree: someone who “lives to eat rather than eating to live”. By contrast, a gourmand is someone more interested in quantity of food than quality of food.

Synonyms

• foodie
• gourmand

Translations

See also

• gourmand
• haute cuisine

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɣuːrˈmɛt/, /ɡuːrˈmɛt/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French gourmet.

Noun

gourmet m (plural gourmets, diminutive gourmetje n)

1. a person of refined palate for food and drink, a gourmet, a foodie
2. a kind of festive meal, similar to raclette or Chinese hot pot, prepared at the table by the diners in individual pots heated by a raclette grill

Derived terms

• gourmetten
• gourmetpan
• gourmetset

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

gourmet

1. inflection of gourmetten:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Finnish

Etymology

From French gourmet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡurmeː/, [ˈɡurme̞ː]
• Rhymes: -urmeː
• Hyphenation^(key): gour‧met

Adjective

gourmet

1. Alternative form of gurmee

Declension

Noun

gourmet

1. Alternative form of gurmee

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• “gourmet”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French gourmet, from Old French groumet (“wine broker, valet in charge of wines, servant”) from Old French grommes (“manservant”), from Middle English grom, grome (“boy, valet, servant”) of unknown origin, perhaps from Old English *grōma (“male child, boy, youth”) from Old English grōwan (“to grow”). Cognate of Spanish grumete and Catalan grumet. More at groom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡuʁ.mɛ/

Noun

gourmet m (plural gourmets)

1. (of wines) a wine expert, especially one who is adept at determining the label, date, and sundry other qualities solely by smatch
2. (more commonly) a culinary connoisseur, gourmet

Descendants

Further reading

• “gourmet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French gourmet.

Noun

gourmet m or f by sense (invariable)

1. gourmet

Further reading

• gourmet in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• gurmê (rare)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French gourmet.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e

Adjective

gourmet (invariable)

1. (of food) gourmet; fine

Derived terms

Noun

gourmet m or f by sense (plural gourmets)

1. gourmet (a person who appreciates good food)

Further reading

• “gourmet”, in iDicionário Aulete (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “gourmet”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “gourmet”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
• “gourmet”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French gourmet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡuɾˈmet/ [ɡuɾˈmet̪]
  • Rhymes: -et
• IPA^(key): /ɡuɾˈme/ [ɡuɾˈme]
  • Rhymes: -e

Adjective

gourmet m or f (masculine and feminine plural gourmets)

1. gourmet

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “gourmet”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Swedish

Noun

gourmet c

1. someone to whom good food is very important; a gourmet

   Synonyms: (less common) gourmé, läckergom

Declension

See also

• finsmakare
• gourmand

References

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