Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday November 3, 1999
gourmand \goor-MAHND; GOOR-mahnd; GOOR-mund\
, noun:
1. One who eats to excess.
2. A lover of good food.
A gourmand who zealously avoids all exercise as "seriously damaging to one's health," he had caviar for breakfast and was now having oysters for lunch, whetted with wine, as he fueled himself for a postprandial reading at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn.
-- "The Man Who Put Horace Rumpole on the Case", New York Times, April 12, 1995
Her husband was stigmatised as a 'gourmand' who excessively enjoyed 'the pleasures of the table'.
-- Andrew Motion, Keats
Fifine was a frank gourmand; anybody could win her heart through her palate.
-- Charlotte Brontë, Villette
Gourmand is from French gourmand, greedy.
Usage note: A gourmet is one who has discriminating taste in food and wine. A gourmand is one who enjoys food of fine quality, and also one who enjoys food in great quantities. Glutton signifies one who simply eats to excess, without reference to the quality of the fare consumed.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for gourmand
