Word of the DayThursday, December 16, 2004
recherche
\ruh-sher-SHAY\ , adjective:1.
Uncommon; exotic; rare.
2.
Exquisite; choice.
3.
Excessively refined; affected.
4.
Pretentious; overblown.
Quotes:
. . .recherche topics interesting only to university specialists.
-- Katharine Washburn and John F. Thornton, Dumbing Down
She was mocking the pretensions of the cookery writer who insists on recherche ingredients not because of their qualities but their snob value.
-- Angela Carter, Shaking a Leg
In recent years, Garber's appetite for the rigors of theory seems to have diminished. The books have kept coming, but the italics-heavy meditations and the recherche terminology have receded.
-- Zoë Heller, "House Arrest", The New Republic, July 3, 2000
Origin:
Recherche comes from French, from rechercher, "to seek out," from re- + chercher, "to look for, to seek."
