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Q: Do jikou (忌口) and guomin (过敏) both mean the same thing?
When the fuwuyuan asks you “有忌口吗”, does that mean "allergic to" or something else? I ask because my dictionary defines the terms jikou (忌口) and guomin (过敏) slightly differently: the first one is "avoid certain foods; be on a diet" and the second is "allergy". If jikou doesn't mean allergy, then what does it mean, and what types of things can you have a jikou to? Can you use it like "vegetarians have a "jikou" to meat" or is it more used for "I don't like spicy food"?
I think the word JIKOU has a broader meaning. It is used when someone doesn't eat a certain food for any reason. For example, vegans don't eat meat, muslims don't eat pork for religious reasons; and even some people don't eat spicy food because they are allergic to it, etc.
GUOMIN solely means "allergy", which is if you eat a certain food you get symptoms of allergy, e.g. running nose, GI disturbances and/or skin rashes.
The two words are used for medicine too. I may be wrong, so let's see how other folks explain this.
Wildcat is pretty right about the difference. Just one more thing : 忌口 is not an appropriate word to refuse spicy food. The reason is that "忌" means something very serious, that you must avoid. So if someone has diabetes, he can say he has a 忌口 to sugar and many other kind of food(sadly). Being allergic to some food is a good reason for 忌口 too, as well as religion reasons. But "I don't like spicy food" is not 忌口 unless you're allergic to it.
过敏 is much simpler.
Explained by a native Chinese guy who lives in China.
