soup du jour
- noun
- /suːp duː ʒʊr/
- Today's special is the soup du jour, a delicious tomato basil soup.
Examples
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At the restaurant, the soup du jour changes daily to feature seasonal ingredients.
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What is the soup du jour?
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We have soup du jour.
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And just what is your soup du jour?
Fiction book (1998) -
What's the soup du jour?
Fiction book (1994) -
Soup du jour, hot hors d'oeuvres
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The waiter described the soup du jour as a hearty chicken noodle soup.
Synonyms
A dish offered on the menu for a short time
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally composes as 'soup' + 'du' (of the) + 'jour' (day) and therefore directly means 'soup of the day'; a learner who knows the constituent words can reconstruct this meaning. Although the chunk is a French loan in English, the compositional pattern 'X of the day' is cross-linguistically common, so the meaning is transparent to someone familiar with the parts.
Etymology
Soup du jour is a French phrase that literally shows soup, du, jour, meaning 'soup of the day'. Restaurants would change the soup each day and tell customers which one was the special. That's why soup du jour means the soup offered as a special on a particular day.