Everyday LifeGreek → English
Gastronomy
/ɡæˈstrɑːnəmi/noun
The art and study of good eating.
The Greek roots
γαστήρ
gastḗr
belly, stomach
νόμος
nómos
law, custom
Literally: “the law of the belly”
The story of the word
Archestratus of Gela wrote a verse guide to the best fish in the Mediterranean in the fourth century BC, and later writers cite it under the title Gastronomia. The poem is lost apart from quotations in Athenaeus. Joseph Berchoux dug the word out for his own poem, La Gastronomie, in 1801, and it reached English by 1814, which is roughly when the restaurant critic was invented as well.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 1814
Same family
gastricgastritisgastropodautonomyeconomy
In a sentence
The trip was sold as a walking holiday, but the gastronomy was the real itinerary.