hors d'oeuvre

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hors d'oeuvre

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• hors-d'oeuvre
• hors d'œuvre
• hors-d'œuvre

Borrowed from French hors-d’œuvre.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɔːˈdɜːv/^[1]

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɔɹˈdɝv/^[1]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

hors d'oeuvre (plural hors d'oeuvre or hors d'oeuvres)

1. (food) A small, light, and usually savory first course in a meal.
2. (by extension) Anything of secondary concern; not the primary thing.
3. (dated, rare) Something unusual or extraordinary.

• 1920, G. K. Chesterton, chapter XIII, in The New Jerusalem:

  It seems quaintest of all when, at some Jewish luncheon parties, a tray of hats is actually handed round, and each guest helps himself to a hat as a sort of hors d'oeuvre.

• 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 3, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC:

  On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.

(food):

• canapé
• horse's doovers

Literally, “apart from the work”, in other words, "apart from the main meal"

hors d’oeuvre m (plural hors d’oeuvre)

1. Nonstandard spelling of hors d’œuvre.

• The œ ligature is often replaced in contemporary French with oe (the œ character does not appear on AZERTY keyboards), but this is nonstandard.