Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person belonging to the middle class.
  • noun A person whose attitudes and behavior are marked by conformity to the standards and conventions of the middle class.
  • noun 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.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See bourgeois.
  • noun A size of printing-type measuring about 100 lines to the foot, next larger than brevier and smaller than long-primer.
  • noun This line is printed in bourgeois.
  • noun In France, a citizen; a burgher; a man of middle rank.
  • noun A small French coin of the fourteenth century.
  • Belonging to or consisting of trades-people or citizens of middle rank: as, bourgeois surroundings; the bourgeois class of France.
  • Wanting in dignity or refinement; common; mean.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun France. A man of middle rank in society; one of the shopkeeping class.
  • noun (Print.) A size of type between long primer and brevier. See type.
  • noun (Print.) See 1st bourgeois.
  • noun rare A burgess; a citizen. See 2d bourgeois.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or relating to the middle class, especially its attitudes and conventions.
  • adjective Belonging to the middle class.
  • adjective Conventional, conservative and materialistic.
  • adjective Marxism Of or relating to capitalist exploitation of the proletariat.
  • noun politics, collectively The middle class.
  • noun rare An individual member of the middle class.
  • noun A person with bourgeois values and attitudes.
  • noun An individual member of the bourgeoisie, one of the three estates.
  • noun Marxism Anyone deemed to be an exploiter of the proletariat, a capitalist.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class
  • adjective belonging to the middle class
  • adjective (according to Marxist thought) being of the property-owning class and exploitive of the working class
  • noun a capitalist who engages in industrial commercial enterprise
  • noun a member of the middle class

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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.

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Examples

  • _Le bourgeois et sa dame_ would watch them with kindly interest, deeming it a kindness not to tell them that there were no trains after twelve; and when the lovers at last determined that they must depart, _le bourgeois_ and _la bourgeoise_ would tell them that their room was quite ready, that there was no possibility of returning to Paris that night.

    Memoirs of My Dead Life 1892

  • He, for example, coined the term bourgeois, as we understand it.

    Making Patriots 2001

  • She laughed heartily, teased Paul about his accent and what she called his bourgeois ideas.

    The Nabob, Vol. 2 (of 2) Alphonse Daudet 1868

  • Tell a plains Indian that he has failed to steal horses from the neighboring tribe, or tell a man living in bourgeois society that he has failed to pay his bills at the neighboring grocer's, and the results are the same.

    The Somnambulists 2010

  • Each, plains Indian and bourgeois, is smeared with a slightly different veneer, that is all.

    The Somnambulists 2010

  • It was on a par with all the rest that Brissenden had condemned in bourgeois society.

    Chapter 40 2010

  • Many true libertarians (most of whom have nothing to do with politics) still believe in bourgeois values as a guidline for thier lives.

    Libertarians and the Old Right « Antiwar.com Blog 2008

  • To identify a given ideology and theoretical position as bourgeois, or petty bourgeois, is often valid; but it is never sufficient.

    A Bland and Deadly Courtesy skzbrust 2007

  • A proprietor who had capital enough to invest in trading goods and supplies was called a bourgeois.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

  • A proprietor who had capital enough to invest in trading goods and supplies was called a bourgeois.

    Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008

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