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Complete/replete, apprehend/comprehend, and gourmet/gourmand – what’s the good word in each pair?


Complete means “lacking no component part; full; whole; entire.” Replete means either “well-filled or plentifully supplied” or “stuffed with food and drink; gorged”.

It is possible to be replete without being complete, and complete does not always indicate a state of being replete. The degree of supply is greater with replete than complete, but the quality of the supply is greater with complete than replete. Since replete included the idea of food, it is somewhat like the difference between gourmet and gourmand.

A gourmet is someone “who likes and is an excellent judge of fine foods and drink” whereas a gourmand is akin to a glutton, “a person with a hearty liking for good food and drink and a tendency to indulge in them to excess.” It is a matter of supply with the gourmand and a matter of quality with the gourmet. Do you comprehend the difference?

Speaking of comprehend, there’s also the difference between comprehend and apprehend. Apprehend in its second definition, that is. (Not the primary one that means capture.) It also means “to take hold of mentally; perceive; understand.” How does that differ from comprehend? It also means to understand, but my dictionary says “to grasp mentally”. What’s the difference between grasping and holding? In usage comprehend is the less intense form – when you take hold of an idea it’s comprehended, but when the idea takes hold of you it’s apprehended. But that differentiation is open to refutation.

Where did all these words come from?

Complete came to English from Latin through Old French in the 14th century. The Latin word completus was formed by adding the intensive prefix com- to the word for fill plere, which is the root word from which we also get the word plenary. (The Old French word is complet.) Replete has the same path and timing, and re- is also an intensive prefix. So those who spoke Latin also had the two words, and the Old French kept them and gave them to us.

It is interesting how similar were the paths of apprehend/comprehend to complete/replete.

Both came to English in the 14th century from Latin (apprehendere, comprehendere), but comprehend didn’t get to spend time in France on its way to England. Apprehend has corresponding French words (Old French: aprendre, Modern French apprendre, which means to learn or be informed about and from which we get the word apprentice.) The Latin root word prehendere is the word for seize, so you can see how it could be used in both words.

Gourmet and gourmand, as you might guess, are both of French origin. But you might not guess that, as etymonline.com says, they are “not connected.” Back in the 13th century there was an Old French word for a young man, groume. It came to mean a wine-taster or wine merchant’s servant. But it wasn’t until 1820 that it took the meaning in English of someone who is a connoisseur (see 11/14/10 blog) of food and drink.

Gourmand comes from the Middle French word gourmant, which meant gluttonous (it was originally an adjective). In the late 15th century (in case you’re wondering, at about the same time King Henry VIII was born) it found its way to England, with the meaning of glutton. It didn’t take the meaning of someone simply fond of good eating until 1758.
Make sense? Then let’s drink to that.