Etymology

a la mode

Today it means: Fashionable; in the current style or fashion. Full definition →

French à la mode
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromà la mode
  2. French · borrowed fromà la mode
  3. English todaya la mode

Unadapted borrowing from French à la mode (“in fashion”). The US sense was coined by polyglot restaurant owner John Gieriet in Minnesota in the 1800s though later attributed to Berry Hall and Charles Watson Townsend.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.