bourgeois

bour·geois

Use bourgeois in a sentence

A home of the bourgeois.

adjective

The definition of bourgeois is relating to the middle class.
An example of bourgeois is a mid-priced restaurant where many locals frequent.

noun

Bourgeois is French and means a member of the middle class.
An example of bourgeois are people living in moderately-priced suburban neighborhoods.

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MLA Style

"bourgeois." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bourgeois>.

APA Style

bourgeois. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bourgeois

bourgeois

noun

pl. bour·geois′

Obs. a freeman of a medieval town
a self-employed person, as a shopkeeper or businessman
a member of the bourgeoisie, or middle class
a person whose beliefs, attitudes, and practices are conventionally middle-class

Origin of bourgeois

French from Old French burgeis from Medieval Latin burgensis from burgus, borgus, town from Old French borc or Frankish an unverified form burg, bourg

of or characteristic of a bourgeois or the bourgeoisie; middle-class; also used variously to mean conventional, smug, materialistic, etc.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bourgeois." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bourgeois>.

APA Style

bourgeois. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bourgeois

bourgeois

noun

pl. bourgeois

A person belonging to the middle class.
A person whose attitudes and behavior are marked by conformity to the standards and conventions of the middle class.
In Marxist theory, a member of the property-owning class; a capitalist.

adjective

Of, relating to, or typical of the middle class, especially in holding conventional attitudes and materialistic values.

Origin of bourgeois

French from Old French burgeis citizen of a town from bourg bourg ; see bourg .

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bourgeois." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bourgeois>.

APA Style

bourgeois. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bourgeois

Adjective

(comparative more bourgeois, superlative most bourgeois)

Of or relating to the middle class, especially its attitudes and conventions.
Belonging to the middle class.
Conventional, conservative and materialistic.
bourgeois opinion
(Marxism) Of or relating to capitalist exploitation of the proletariat.

Noun

(uncountable)

(politics, collectively) The middle class.
(rare) An individual member of the middle class.
A person with bourgeois values and attitudes.
An individual member of the bourgeoisie, one of the three estates.
(Marxism) Anyone deemed to be an exploiter of the proletariat, a capitalist.
(printing) A size of type between long primer and brevier.

Origin

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.