Etymology

à la carte

Today it means: Allowing selection from a fixed list of individually priced options shown on the menu. Full definition →

French à la carte
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. French · borrowed fromà la carte“on the menu; according to the card”
  2. English todayà la carte

Unadapted borrowing from French à la carte (“on the menu; according to the card”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.