- Today's Word
Gourmand
GOR-mand
Definition
(noun) A person who takes excessive pleasure in eating and drinking, often to the point of overindulgence.
Example
The restaurant critic was a gourmand in the truest sense — not merely knowledgeable about food but physically incapable of leaving anything on the plate.
Word Origin
Gourmand comes from the Old French gourmant, meaning “glutton” or “one who eats greedily,” of uncertain further origin. It entered English in the 15th century carrying its French sense of someone defined by appetite rather than discernment. The word is frequently confused with gourmet — a person of refined culinary taste — but the distinction is meaningful: a gourmet selects carefully and savors deliberately, while a gourmand simply wants more. One is defined by quality, the other by quantity.
Fun Fact
The most celebrated gourmand in history may be Honoré Beauharnais, or more likely the legendary figure of Tarrare — an 18th century Frenchman whose appetite was so extreme it became a medical curiosity. Tarrare could reportedly consume a meal intended for fifteen people in a single sitting, swallow live animals whole, and was observed eating things that cannot be printed in a family newsletter. Military surgeons attempted to study him as a potential courier — reasoning that documents hidden inside him would be impossible to intercept. The experiment failed when he ate a fellow patient’s dinner. And reportedly the patient.