Gourmet is French borrowed in 1820, with the silent t that dates late French loans — the same seam visible in ballet, debut, buffet and depot. English took the spelling with the letter and the pronunciation without it, because French had stopped sounding its final consonants long before English came for this word.
The French word is not as elevated as its English use suggests. It was altered, under the influence of gourmant, "glutton," from Old French groume, which originally meant a wine-taster or a wine merchant's servant, and in the 1200s just a lad. English compare it to groom. So a gourmet started as a hired boy who tasted wine, drifted toward the glutton next door, and arrived in English as a connoisseur — a promotion of several social ranks in the course of the journey.
gourmet (n.) "connoisseur in eating and drinking," 1820, from French gourmet , altered (by influence of gourmant "glutton") from Old French groume , originally "wine-taster, wine merchant's servant" (in 13c. "a lad generally"), a word of uncertain origin. As an adjective from 1900. Compare groom (n.1). For sense distinction, see gourmand . also from 1820
gourmet came in through Later and wider borrowings, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| a final stressed syllable that just stops | Modern French: write the consonant you can't hear, usually -tballet, gourmet, debut |
What gives it away on the page
| -eau, -oir/-oire, ch said as /ʃ/, silent final consonant | Modern French — borrowed after French itself stopped pronouncing final consonants.bureau, memoir, machine, chef, ballet, debut, gourmet |
Placing it without the spelling
| the stress on the last syllable, and the word simply stops there | Modern Frenchballet, debut, gourmet |
Later and wider borrowings in the spelling guide · guess another word's family