adjective
-
known only to connoisseurs; choice or rare
-
studiedly refined or elegant
Etymology
Origin of recherché
First recorded in 1680–90; from French, past participle of rechercher “to search for carefully”; see research
Explanation
Something that's recherche is very fancy, and maybe a little bit rare. Taking an elegant ocean liner from New York to France would be a recherche way to travel. Language can be recherche, when it's especially complicated. If you're writing a story and instead of "She said," you write "She opined" or "She emoted," your style is fairly recherche. And if everyone at a party is wearing jeans, but you wear a tuxedo, your outfit is recherche. In French, recherché means "carefully sought out," from chercher, "to search."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They added that AICA-USA was “moribund and loyal to the time when art criticism and writing was a niche, privileged, recherché endeavor. We insist that it does not need to be this.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2023
And restorative justice—once a fairly recherché concept on the left—has gotten widespread enough that the backlash is well under way.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2021
Social goods come in many forms and we’ll have plenty of time to be surprised by some of the more recherché ones in the months ahead.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2020
There had to be a happier way to live, a comfort zone somewhere between recherché reductivism and A&E’s “Hoarders.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2018
Super royal 8vo, elegant and recherché Binding after the 18th Century, 31s. 6d.
From A Cursory History of Swearing by Sharman, Julian
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
