FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH

noun phrase (Lifestyle and Leisure) The current fashion; something that (or someone who) is especially popular at a given time. Also with variations, such as flavour of the week, year, etc. Etymology: A figurative application of a phrase that began as a marketing ploy in US ice-cream parlours in the forties, when a particular ice-cream flavour would be singled out for the month or week for special promotion. History and Usage: Flavour of the month started to be used figuratively in the news media in the late seventies, and for a while in the early eighties the phrase itself appeared to be flavour of the month with journalists. There is often a note of cynicism in its use, implying that the thing or person described as flavour of the month is but a passing fashion or whim that will soon be replaced by the next one. It is also sometimes applied to something which is not really subject to fashions, but is especially common or widely reported at a given time. In many ways the question of authority in the Church is the theological flavour of the year in Anglican circles. Church Times 15 May 1987, p. 7 Readership surveys were flavour of the month in that sector so he wanted one. Media Week 2 Sept. 1988, p. 14 Currently the England dressing room resembles a MASH unit, with finger and hand injuries the flavour of the month. Guardian 2 Apr. 1990, p. 15