Chris Coad
Chris Coad
I was hoping this would be the first in a series.
Next week: "What is a 'Gearhead'?", and so on.
Next week: "What is a 'Gearhead'?", and so on.
CFD: What is a foodie?
- Thread starter Brad Kane
- Start date
Ben Sherwin
Ben Sherwin
I always thought "Wedge" would be a good nickname for someone, as a wedge is a simple tool.
Chris Coad
Chris Coad
Luke's buddy in Star Wars was (nick)named 'Wedge.'
He was a foodie.
He was a foodie.
Chris Coad
Chris Coad
Hahahahaha!
Oh man, that had me madly trying to control over-the-top laughter at my desk. My cow-orkers, they suspect something....
Oh man, that had me madly trying to control over-the-top laughter at my desk. My cow-orkers, they suspect something....
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
Epicureanism, the Greek philosophy, has little do with either being a foodie or a hedonist. Epicurus thought that the highest pleasure, and thus the greatest good was tranquility and freedom from fear. He recommended a life of moderation or even asceticism. Somehow, though, the word epicurean, has come to mean something like someone with tastes that manage to be both fastidious and luxurious. That might not be bad shorthand for what most people mean by foodie.
Until Parker, hedonism hadn't changed meanings. A hedonist, as a philosopher, was someone who believed that pleasure was the only good and thus always to be sought out. From this, the word was applied to people one felt valued pleasure as the only end, perhaps irresponsibly so. The link between these two meanings is fairly clear as it is merely a matter of a difference between holding a belief and acting upon it. How one gets from there, however, either to things that provide pleasure, such as hedonistic wine, or people with refined tastes in pleasure (who might in fact, by their fastidious tastes, wind up reducing their ability to take pleasure in some things and thus not be truly hedonist)is beyond me and a sloppiness of language to be resisted as much as taking gourmand to mean gourmet or varietal to mean variety.
Until Parker, hedonism hadn't changed meanings. A hedonist, as a philosopher, was someone who believed that pleasure was the only good and thus always to be sought out. From this, the word was applied to people one felt valued pleasure as the only end, perhaps irresponsibly so. The link between these two meanings is fairly clear as it is merely a matter of a difference between holding a belief and acting upon it. How one gets from there, however, either to things that provide pleasure, such as hedonistic wine, or people with refined tastes in pleasure (who might in fact, by their fastidious tastes, wind up reducing their ability to take pleasure in some things and thus not be truly hedonist)is beyond me and a sloppiness of language to be resisted as much as taking gourmand to mean gourmet or varietal to mean variety.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
That is indeed what I think. Calling a wine "hedonistic," is a futzed up (note the technical term) way of saying it is pleasurable, which is what we English speakers would say.
Ben Sherwin
Ben Sherwin
Interesting post Jonathan. Perhaps we should introduce the Libertine to the equation...
Steve Guattery
Steve Guattery
And then back into the kitchen to cook? I don't know...
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
This is Mark Squires's defense of "varietal." In the long view you are right that usage will determine meaning. It's because the OED records usage that it is such a wonderful instrument. But usage occurs because people make choices. One of the choices they make is to follow a neologism or decide it is a solecism and razz it. Making certain nouns into verbs that essentially relate to the nouns and save ancillary phrases (gifting instead of giving a gift) provides a stylistic alternative and is sensical. Changing a philosophical term into a synonym for pleasurable seems to be just to add a false feeling of flash, just as referring to "varietal" no doubt sounds fancier to people when in fact it destroys a meaningful distinction.
One can no more accede to usage than one can stop its progress. All one can do is participate in its development. And one way is to complain when the reason seems right, just as it seems right to you to complain against the misuse of "gourmand" even though that misuse is widely spread enough so that some people here at first didn't even know you were complaining about it.
Joe Dressner
Joe Dressner
What's your go-to food?
Frank Deis
Frank Deis
Scott Kraft
Scott Kraft
You pay people to ork cows? I'm not sure what foodies would think. Brad?
David M. Bueker
David M. Bueker
Perhaps he works with Robin Williams.
john McCarthy
john McCarthy
I think your friend sounds like a pseudo-intellectual Douche-Bag.
By chance does he look like this:
