グルメ

• 読み: グルメ
• ローマ字: gurume
• 漢字の分解: From French 'gourmet' → adopted into Japanese as a loanword covering both fine food and food enthusiasts
• 発音: /ɡu.ɾu.me/

意味

Fine food or gourmet cuisine; also used to describe a person who appreciates and seeks out good food — a foodie.

Borrowed from French 'gourmet,' this loanword has been fully naturalized in Japanese and is used far more broadly than in English. It functions as both a noun (delicious food, cuisine) and an adjective (food-savvy, having refined taste). Japanese TV is filled with グルメ shows, and the word appears in countless compound terms like B級グルメ and ご当地グルメ.

例文

1. あの人めっちゃグルメだから、お店選びは任せよう。
2. 週末はグルメ巡りするのが趣味なんだ。
3. このエリア、グルメな店が多くて迷うよね。

使い方ガイド

場面: restaurants, TV shows, travel, conversation

トーン: appreciative, descriptive

正しい言い方

• グルメな友達に連れてってもらった店がめっちゃ美味しかった。 (A foodie friend took me to a restaurant that was incredible.)
• この街はグルメの街として有名だよね。 (This city is famous as a food lover's town.)

避ける言い方

• 自分をグルメと呼ぶのは少し自慢っぽく聞こえることがある (Calling yourself a グルメ can sound a bit boastful — it's better when others say it about you)

よくある間違い

• Assuming グルメ only means expensive food — it covers all quality food appreciation including street food and casual dining

起源と歴史

From French 'gourmet.' Entered Japanese in the 1980s-90s during the gourmet boom (グルメブーム), when food culture and dining out became major lifestyle trends in Japan.

文化的背景

時代: 1980s-90s gourmet boom, now permanent vocabulary

世代: All ages

社会的背景: Universal

地域メモ: Used across all of Japan. Central to Japanese food media and tourism culture.