Gourmet, attributive and predicative adjective (was Re: re "foodie")

[George Thompson]

*"Smencils* - Gourmet scented pencils and pens made from recycled
newspapers."
www.*smencils*.com/

GAT

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 11:17 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>wrote:

> "Gourmet shaving", too:
> http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2006/07/26/gourmet-shaving/
>
> From the blog post:
>  Now, though, gourmet is a true adjective, at least for speakers who can
> modify it with adverbs to get very gourmet or truly gourmet, add suffixes
> to get gourmetly or gourmetness, or can use it after be, as in is very
> gourmet.
>
>  Once gourmet has gained status as an actual adjective, then it can mean
> just "made or done with the finest materials and the greatest care," and if
> that's all it means, then why wouldn't it be used to describe anything that
> could be made or done this way? And sure enough, I Googled for and found
> attestations of gourmet manicure, gourmet pedicure, and gourmet massage,
> and gourmet sex.
> Neal
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Victor Steinbok" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 12:46 AM
> Subject: Re: re "foodie"
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: re "foodie"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > By the way, I need to be educated here. OED lists Gourmet b. as
> > "attributive and quasi-adjective". Is there any reason why "gourmet
> > food" or "gourmet meal" does not have "gourmet" as just an adjective? It
> > might have been attributive initially (i.e., food fit for a gourmet),
> > but that is certainly not how it is used now. To make things even more
> > interesting, we now have gourmet cuts, gourmet spices, gourmet
> > preparations, gourmet quality, etc.
> >
> >     VS-)
>
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>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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