It's the Word of the Day podcast for March 23rd.
Today's word is de rigueur, spelled as two words as they would be in French, D-E-R-I-G-U-E-U-R.
Derigure is an adjective.
It's a formal adjective that describes things that are necessary if you want to be fashionable,
popular, or socially acceptable.
In other words, things required by fashion, etiquette, or custom.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Refinery29.com by Amanda Randone.
Summer swimwear has come a long way
since itty-bitty string bikinis were derigure for the beach and by the pool.
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 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 borrowing du jour.
While the latter describes things that are popular, fashionable,
or prominent at a particular time, as in the topic-style buzzword du jour,
de regur describes that which is considered mandatory by fashion, etiquette,
or custom for acceptability within a given social sphere or context.