gourmand

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The Word of the Day for December 3 is:

gourmand   \GOOR-mahnd\   noun
     1 : one who is excessively fond of eating and drinking
    *2 : one who is heartily interested in good food and drink

Example sentence:
     Jason trusted the discriminating palate of his Uncle Gerald, a gourmand 
who is well acquainted with the area's best restaurants.

Did you know?
     "What God has plagu'd us with this gourmaund guest?" As this exasperated 
question from Alexander Pope's 18th-century translation of Homer's Odyssey 
suggests, being a gourmand is not necessarily a good thing. When "gourmand" 
began appearing in English texts in the 15th century, it was a decidedly bad 
thing, a synonym of "glutton" that was reserved for a greedy eater who consumed 
well past satiation. That negative connotation remained until English speakers 
borrowed the similar-sounding (and much more positive) "gourmet" from French in 
the 19th century. Since then, the meaning of "gourmand" has softened, so that 
although it still isn't wholly flattering, it now suggests someone who likes 
good food in large quantities rather than a slobbering glutton.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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