Gourmet

How to spell gourmet

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gourmet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gourmet mean?

1. nounA person who is a knowledgeable judge of fine food and drink.
2. adjectiveRelating to or suitable for refined, high-quality food and cooking.

Gourmet in a sentence

• noun

  As a serious gourmet, she could name the region of any cheese by taste.

• adjective

  They spent the weekend cooking a gourmet meal from scratch.

• noun

  The restaurant attracted every gourmet in the city.

• adjective

  The shop sells gourmet chocolate at a steep price.

Where does gourmet come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes directly from French, where 'gourmet' originally named a wine merchant's assistant or a serving boy in a wine trade, spelled 'groume' or 'gromet' in Old French. Over time the French sense narrowed to mean a refined connoisseur of fine wines, and then more broadly an expert judge of good food and drink. It is worth noting that 'gourmet' became blended in meaning with the older French word 'gourmand', which described a hearty eater or glutton, though the two stayed distinct: a gourmet judges quality while a gourmand simply loves quantity. English borrowed 'gourmet' in the early nineteenth century, keeping the silent French ending '-et' that sounds like 'may', which is exactly the spelling trap, since the ending is heard but not the letter you might expect. The retained French shape, with 'gour-' and a silent 't', is the clue that this is a borrowed culinary term rather than a native English one.

How the word is built

• gourmet (from Old French groume/gromet: a wine merchant's servant or tasting boy)