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Gourmet

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Term: Gourmet

Typical definition example: Specialty and imported food products (definition for "gourmet food")
Wikipedia example: characterised by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, often quite rich courses.

Proposed Definition: Not the worst

Justification: I'm talking about a particular usage of the term "gourmet" here, what may now be the most common usage - prepared food (think of gourmet cookies or gourmet tomato sauce at the local supermarket). Most people would probably think of a gourmet restaurant or a gourmet meal, as one that was striving to be the best in a particular area (either culinary area or actual physical location). Whoever's preparing the meal is striving to make every aspect of it as good as can be, or to live up to some particular ideal.

This idea can also get extended sometimes to include gourmet kitchens, gourmet equipment, or gourmet ingredients. Which would be the kind of kitchen/equipment/ingredients you'd like to have to make a gourmet meal. Obviously though, it's tough to continue to stretch the definition to apply to prepared foods as well. There's very few if any foods that are better when they're made to survive being on a store shelf than when served fresh. And most people probably aren't fooled in to thinking that the "gourmet" frozen pizza they're picking up is as good as a pizza from a gourmet restaurant. So, what does the term mean now then? Especially since almost no one who's trying to make really great prepared food would call it gourmet anymore (which part of the reason why people needed to start using terms like "artisanal.")

It's obviously a marketing term, meant to signify some level of quality. And that level of quality can really only be "not the worst." Gourmet meals are ones that are trying to be better than almost anything else you can get. Gourmet (prepared) food is just trying to be better than something. Take gourmet cookies for example. Looking at the shelf in the grocery store there are lots of cookies that are made with the cheapest possible ingredients, made to last as long as possible on the shelf, and probably saw more money spent on marketing than on the food itself. Then there are gourmet cookies, they're better than the cheapest cookies in someway. Maybe the ingredients are marginally better, or they'll only last a month on the shelf instead of a year. In some way the manufacturer has sought to make them better, in at least one way, than the worst cookies you can buy.
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