Gourmand
GOURMET. - Gourmand is a word of foreign origin, but it is perfectly naturalised among us, for we understand and accept its meaning. Gourmet, on the other hand, is a good English word in its origin, but it is doubtful whether it will ever pass current among us in the sense which the French have put upon it. The word is really a diminutive of groom-a young man, a lad. In its broadest sense it survives in bridegroom. It is peculiarly applied to the young man who looks after horses; and gromet or grummet is an old sailor's word for a cabinboy. In French the word was transposed to gourme, the diminutive being gourmet, a lad in general, then the winemerchant's lad, then a wine-taster, next a good judge of wine whether professional or not, and lastly any one with a fine taste and delicate in his feeding.
There is such an obvious difference between the gourmand and the gourmet, and it is so clearly possible to be the one without the other, that some people wonder at the difficulty of bringing the name for the latter into popular use.
The fact is, that the words are too nearly alike in sound. To this it may be replied that they are alike in French as well as in English, and that therefore we should expect the distinction to be as easy in English as in French. * Gourmand There is a difference, however. In French the words gourmand and gourmandise do not express the same amount of gluttony as do the corresponding words in English. Kings and queens of France, princes of the blood, and the most beautiful ladies of the court, thought it no shame to be gourmands. They took a pride and pleasure in cookery; they invented and suggested dishes; and their names are handed down to posterity in connection with the triumphs of the kitchen. The most delicate lady in France does not proclaim herself a glutton and need not blush because she enrols herself among those to whom the Almanach des Gourmands is addressed. But gormandising in the English idea is sheer gluttony-and no one dare own to it, however much he may indulge in it. To an English ear, accordingly, the word gourmet is too suggestive of the gourmand, the gourmand is too suggestive of the glutton, and the sound is altogether unpleasant. Therefore, in spite of all explanations, it is doubtful whether the word gourmet will survive in the English language, much as we need some such term to indicate a fine taste as distinct from voracity. English is singularly weak in this way. "Some people," said Dr. Johnson to Boswell, "have a foolish way of not minding or pretending not to mind what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously and very carefully; for I look upon it that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else." Here, by the use of a strong word which is identified in our minds with belly-gods and gluttony, the great moralist appears to give. a gross meaning to what is perfectly innocent. For belly say food or eating, which is all he meant, and no one need be offended. As some people can make love passionately, but cannot do it lightly and gracefully, so others cannot show that they are particular as to their eating without showing eagerness and greed.
It would be a good thing if some English poet would invent a phrase to denote nicety of taste at table without Grace before Meat implying the rage of appetite. It is certainly odd that Englishmen should have such an exalted idea of the sense of taste that they bestow its name upon the faculty of estimating all that is most sublime and beautiful in nature and art, while they have no name left for the fine appreciation of food, for the enjoyments of the table, for the divine art of banqueting, which does not confuse dining with gorging and the gratification of the palate with the repletion of a sot.