English
gourmet
Gourmet comes from French gourmet ‘a culinary connoisseur, gourmet’, and goes back to Old French groumet ‘wine broker, valet in charge of wines, servant’.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400groumet‘wine broker, valet in charge of wines, servant’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600gourmet
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgourmet‘a culinary connoisseur, gourmet’
- Englishearliest quotation 1961gourmet
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400groumet‘wine broker, valet in charge of wines, servant’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600gourmet
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgourmet‘a culinary connoisseur, gourmet’
- Englishearliest quotation 1961gourmet
Earliest quotation: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs: “The vulvae of the sow were popular as a…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- ‘to become green, grow’
green, grown, grass, herb, arbor, graze, greedily, yerba, ambergris, 17 more
through Proto-Germanic *grōaną ‘to grow’
through Middle English grom ‘a boy’
Today it means
adj Fine; of superior quality.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French groumet / gourmet