Bourgeois Definition

bo͝or-zhwä, bo͝orzhwä
noun
A freeman of a medieval town.
Webster's New World
A self-employed person, as a shopkeeper or businessman.
Webster's New World
A member of the bourgeoisie, or middle class.
Webster's New World
A person whose beliefs, attitudes, and practices are conventionally middle-class.
Webster's New World
In Marxist theory, a member of the property-owning class; a capitalist.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
adjective
Of, relating to, or typical of the middle class, especially in holding conventional attitudes and materialistic values.
American Heritage
Of or characteristic of a bourgeois or the bourgeoisie; middle-class; also used variously to mean conventional, smug, materialistic, etc.
Webster's New World

Of or relating to the middle class, especially its attitudes and conventions.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
Antonyms:

Origin of Bourgeois

  • Borrowed from French bourgeois (“a class of citizens who were wealthier members of the Third Estate”), from Anglo-Norman burgeis (“town dweller”), from Old French borjois, from borc (“town”), from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“fortress”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrgʰ- (“fortified elevation”). The path from Proto-Germanic to Old French is unclear. Perhaps via Frankish *burg or Late Latin *burgus, or possibly both. See also the related word burgess.

    From Wiktionary

  • French from Old French burgeis citizen of a town from bourg bourg bourg

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Bourgeois Sentence Examples

  • Boccaccio, the contented bourgeois, succeeded to Dante, the fierce aristocrat.

  • But the acceptance of a portfolio in a bourgeois ministry led to his exclusion from the Unified Socialist party (March 1906).

  • The conditions which have the five been described, of despotism, mercenary warfare and bourgeois prosperity, determined the character of this epoch, which was also the period when the great achievements of the Renaissance were prepared.

  • Charles and Rene of Anjou retired from court, and the greater part of the members of the king's council were drawn from the bourgeois classes.

  • There are four main classes or crus (literally growths, but more correctly types or qualities), namely, the " grands crus classes " or " classed growths " and the bourgeois, artisan and peasant growths.

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Words Starting With

BBOBOU

Words Ending With

SISOIS

Unscrambles

bourgeois

Words Starting With B and Ending With S

Starts With B & Ends With SStarts With BO & Ends With SStarts With B & Ends With IS

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9 Letter Words9 Letter Words Starting With B9 Letter Words Ending With S