Meaning
Required or expected by the prevailing etiquette, fashion, or convention; obligatory rather than optional. Borrowed from French, it typically modifies nouns such as dress, wine, or small talk, naming what one must do or have to count as proper or up to date. The tone is often faintly ironic, poking at social conformity. Formal and slightly posh; in current journalism at least as often ironic as literal. Regional use: General English (French loan).
Origin
A French phrase taken over whole, literally 'of strictness', from de 'of' plus rigueur 'rigour, strictness'. English borrowed it in the early nineteenth century: Merriam-Webster gives a first known use of 1833, and Dictionary.com dates it 1825-35. It belongs to the family of French fashion-and-manners loans that English uses for the rules of social life, and unlike many of them it has kept its original sense intact; only the register has shifted, from earnest etiquette manuals toward often tongue-in-cheek lifestyle journalism.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- de rigeur (frequent misspelling)
- de-rigueur (hyphenated)
- derigueur (written solid)
Usage Examples
- Opaque tights and black blazers were de rigueur at the gallery opening.
- In that firm a handwritten thank-you note remains de rigueur after an interview.
- Columnists joked that a public apology within twenty-four hours was now de rigueur.