What does "du jour" mean?

Question

Mneeti in India asked about the expression du jour in the phrase “strategy du jour.”

Answer  

Du jour

Let’s start with the meaning of du jour. Du jour is an adjective used only after a noun, as in

1. soup du jour
2. topic du jour
3. hairstyle du jour

It comes from French, in which du jour means literally “of the day.” In English, it can mean either an item served in a restaurant on a particular day, as in example 1 above, or something that is happening or popular at the current time (this month, this year, etc.), as in examples 2 and 3. When it is used to mean popular, it can have a slightly negative meaning, similar to trendy.

Du jour is most commonly used in newspapers, magazines, and news shows. It is not common in academic writing. Below are some example sentences that show how du jour is used.

• Our pasta du jour is linguine with clam sauce.
• Long straight hair was the style du jour.
• The recession was once again the topic du jour on the radio.

Strategy du jour
A strategy is a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal. As you can probably guess, a strategy du jour is a strategy that is widely used or popular at the current time.

I hope this helps.