gourmet

The first attestation is the feminine groumete ('wine broker'), followed by the masculine groumet ('servant in charge of conducting the wines'), then, by metathesis of the /r/, gourmet. In the middle of the 15th century, it takes on the meaning of 'one who tastes wine, who knows how to appreciate it, a good drinker' and in the eighteenth century, it leaves the oenological domain to become more general to 'a person who knows how to appreciate good food'. Diminutive of the Old French grommes (servant), itself from the Old English grom ('young boy' see groom). The word has undergone, in its semantic evolution, the influence of gourmand.