Gourmet & Gourmand

I frequently misuse words (yeah, cue the chorus of mock gasps of surprise). Sometimes when people do that, it's funny or endearing. The quintessential example is Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's 18th century play The Rivals from whose name the term malapropism was coined. For example, she calls upon her coquettish young charge to "promise to forget this fellow - to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory." Of course, the dear lady meant obliterate.

But lacking the charms of a fussy dowager, I'm not so amused at myself when I fumble a term. And one of those words I've fumbled on multiple occasions is gourmand.

It sounds like gourmet, after all. And gourmet is so frequently used as an adjective -- a gourmet dinner at Chez François, a gourmet appetizer to impress your guests, a gourmet brunch, a gourmet quiche, a gourmet soufflé (notice how you seldom hear someone refer to a "gourmet hotdog" or "gourmet bingo night potluck," however) -- that it's easy to forget it's a noun as well. But yes, it is. "She's a true gourmet" is the most precise way to refer to your friend who has refined palate for foods and flavors. But gosh darn it, gourmand sounds like it fits just as well in that sentence. Only, if you use it instead, you've just called your friend a greedy pig, just in a nicer sounding way.

Except that so many people have misused the term throughout history that ironically it has also come to mean being a judge of good eating as well. So, it's a slippery term.

Still, the original meaning still holds sway. So, forgive me, anyone who believes I've referred to him as a glutton. I swear it was unintentional. Really. (Except for the guy who sawed off the hunk of cheese at the open house and put the larger chunk in a takeout container leaving the part he'd grasped in his big, beefy hand on the table for the next guests; I thought I was being ironic about him.) This is why I've bookmarked online dictionaries and keep the trusty OED (the bible of those with obsessive etymological disorder) handy to check myself.

Dictionary Definitions
Gourmand
Pronounced: [goor-mahnd or goor-muhnd]
Root: French, but of unknown origin
1. one who is fond of over-eating; one who eats greedily or to excess; a glutton
2. one who is fond of delicate fare; a judge of good eating. Says OED: "in this sense only partially anglicized, and often pronounced [gurmã]. (Cf. GOURMET)."

Gourmet
Pronounced: [goor-mey]
Root: Old French gourmet, groumet, gromet meaning a wine merchant's assistant, a wine taster
1. a connoisseur of fine food and drink; epicure
2. of a kind or standard suitable for a gourmet