Gourmand and Gourmet — A Glimpse of Women Status from the Gender of the Two Words

Abstract

To get an idea of the social status of women in 19th century France, we can go through a linguistic study of the gender of two words gourmand and gourmet, both indicating an eater on the table. If the word gourmand has a feminine form gourmande, while the word gourmet only designates men eaters, it deserves a deeper look at their meaning for French writers, especially the master of realism, Honoré de Balzac, representing more or less the ideology about women at the time.