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🗓️ 23 March 2025
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 23, 2025 is:
de rigueur • \duh-ree-GUR\ • adjective
De rigueur is a formal adjective that describes things that are necessary if you want to be fashionable, popular, socially acceptable, etc.—in other words, things required by fashion, etiquette, or custom.
// Dark sunglasses are de rigueur these days among fashionistas.
Examples:
“Summer swimwear has come a long way since itty-bitty string bikinis were de rigueur for the beach and by the pool.” — Amanda Randone, Refinery29.com, 31 May 2024
Did you know?
It takes a lot of work to be cool. One needs to wear the right clothes, understand the right pop culture references, and use the right lingo before it ceases to be, ahem, on fleek. Rigor is required, is what we’re saying—a strict precision in adhering to the dictates of fashion. Such rigor is at the crux of the adjective de rigueur, a direct borrowing from French where it means “out of strictness” or “according to strict etiquette.” Rigor is also what distinguishes de rigueur from a similar French borrowing, du jour. While the latter describes things that are popular, fashionable, or prominent at a particular time, as in “topic/style/buzzword du jour,” de rigueur describes that which is considered mandatory by fashion, etiquette, or custom for acceptability within a given social sphere or context. A bucket hat, for example, may be the chapeau du jour if it is currently popular or prevalent, but it would only be de rigueur if, among a certain crowd, you would be given the side-eye for not wearing one.
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0:00.0 | It's the Word of the Day podcast for March 23rd. |
0:11.5 | Today's word is de rigour, spelled as two words as they would be in French, D-E-E-R-I-G-U-R. |
0:19.9 | De R-I-G-U-E-U-R. Here's the word used in a sentence from Refinery29.com by Amanda Randone. |
0:39.9 | Summer swimwear has come a long way since itty-bitty string bikinis were du rigour for the beach and by the pool. |
0:47.1 | It takes a lot of work to be cool. One needs to wear the right clothes, understand the right pop culture references, and use the right lingo before |
0:55.4 | it ceases to be on fleek. Rigour is required, is what we're saying, a strict precision in |
1:01.5 | adhering to the dictates of fashion. Such rigor is at the crux of the adjective de rigour, a direct |
1:08.0 | borrowing from French where it means out of strictness or according to strict |
1:12.4 | etiquette. Rigger is also what distinguishes de rigour from a similar borrowing, du jour. |
1:19.2 | While the latter describes things that are popular, fashionable, or prominent at a particular time, |
1:24.7 | as in the topic style buzzword du jour jour. De Rieger describes that which is |
1:29.7 | considered mandatory by fashion, etiquette, or custom for acceptability within a given |
1:35.5 | social sphere or context. A bucket hat, for example, may be the chapeau du jour if it is |
1:41.9 | currently popular or prevalent, but it would only be de rigour if, |
1:46.2 | among a certain crowd, you would be given the side eye for not wearing one. With your word of the day, |
1:51.8 | I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
1:56.6 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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