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du jour

du jour /du: {Z} {U} {schwa} (r); NAmE {Z} {U} r/ adj. [after noun] (informal, humorous) very popular or important now: This age group is the target group du jour. The Quote du Jour comes from President Bush. The two film stars are very much the couple du jour.

This expression comes from French and literally means `of the day'. It is most familiar to speakers of English from French restaurants where you often find the phrase plat du jour (= dish of the day). There are a large number of other phrases used in English that come from French. Some common examples include:

the crème de la crème: (= `the cream of the cream') the best people or things of their kind: This university takes only the crème de la crème of school-leavers.

(make/commit) a faux pas: (= `wrong step') an action or a remark that causes embarrassment because it is not socially correct: I realized I had made a major faux pas by mentioning the war. Common fashion faux pas include wearing white socks with dark trousers.

his, your, etc. raison d'être: (= `reason for being') the most important reason for sb's/sth's existence: Profit remains the sole raison d'être of studio executives.

a tour de force: (= `an act of strength') an extremely skilful performance or achievement: The book is something of a tour de force in its description of modern Chinese history.

We also publish a wide range of bilingual dictionaries specially designed for learners of English, including the Dictionnaire Oxford Poche for French speakers. This dictionary provides extensive, up-to-date coverage of the vocabulary French-speaking students need to know, and includes colour headwords, illustrations and a guide to help students make the most of the dictionary. There are more than 500 notes on English grammar, vocabulary and culture and study pages on topics like false friends and phrasal verbs.