re "foodie"

[Laurence Horn]

On Dec 8, 2011, at 11:32 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> But it's /not/ a "complete synonym of 'gourmet'"!

My point exactly.  The actual definition of "foodie" doesn't quite claim complete synonymy as I wrote last night--

A person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet. Sometimes distinguished from ‘gourmet’ as implying a broad interest in all aspects of food procurement and preparation.

--but I still don't think that quite describes it, although the article I mentioned--focusing on those insisting on the virtues of obtaining local and wild ingredients--wouldn't characterize a gourmet the way it does a foodie.  Let's see what AHD5 (yay!) has...

Nope, basically the same, I'm afraid:

Slang.  'One has an ardent or refined interest in food; a gourmet.  Also call _foodist_.'

Maybe I'm also finding a difference in the _kind_ of food foodies vs. gourmets are in love with, and what the prototype member of each category looks like (dresses like, talks like, etc.). as well as the insistence on sourcing the ingredients and so on.  Is there a more accurate definition around?  I'd like one that predicts that, say, Calvin Trillin is a foodie but not a gourmet.  

LH

> 
> On 12/8/2011 8:41 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> ...
>> 
>> But even if the OED's Greene cite does turn out to be unantedateable, their definition--basically treating "foodie" as a complete synonym of "gourmet", seems a bit off, if only because of the sort of people each term evokes (in both the U.S. and the U.K., as far as I can tell).
>> 
>> LH
> 
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