Word of the Day

: August 11, 2009

dernier cri

noun dairn-yay-KREE

What It Means

: the newest fashion

dernier cri in Context

When it came to shopping for a new wardrobe for school, Jacqueline tended to ignore the dernier cri and would instead pick clothes that suited her own tastes.

Did You Know?

Paris has long been the last word in fashion, but hot designer clothes from the city's renowned runways aren’t the only stylish French exports. Words, too, sometimes come with a French label. "Dernier cri," literally "last cry," is one such chic French borrowing. The word is no trendy fad, however. More than a century has passed since "dernier cri" was the latest thing on the English language scene (and cut-steel jewelry was declared the dernier cri by the Westminster Gazette of December 10, 1896), but the term (unlike cut-steel) remains as modish as ever. Other fashionable French words have walked the runways of the English language since then: "blouson" (1904); "couture" (1908); "culotte" (1911); "lamé" (a clothing fabric, 1922); and "bikini" (1947), to name a few.