bourgeois

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Related to bourgeois: bourgeoisie

bour·geois

(bo͝or-zhwä′, bo͝o- bo͝or′zhwä′, bo͝o′-)

n. pl. bourgeois

1. A person belonging to the middle class.

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

3. In Marxist theory, a member of the property-owning class; a capitalist.

adj.

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

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

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bourgeois

(ˈbʊəʒwɑː; bʊəˈʒwɑː)

n, pl -geois

1. a member of the middle class, esp one regarded as being conservative and materialistic or (in Marxist thought) a capitalist exploiting the working class

2. a mediocre, unimaginative, or materialistic person

adj

3. characteristic of, relating to, or comprising the middle class

4. conservative or materialistic in outlook: a bourgeois mentality.

5. (in Marxist thought) dominated by capitalists or capitalist interests

[C16: from Old French borjois, burgeis burgher, citizen, from bourg town; see burgess]

bourgeoise fem n

bourgeois

(bəˈdʒɔɪs)

(Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) (formerly) a size of printer's type approximately equal to 9 point

[C19: perhaps from its size, midway between long primer and brevier]

Bourgeois

(French burʒwa)

(Biography) Léon Victor Auguste (leɔ̃ viktɔr oɡyst). 1851–1925, French statesman; first chairman of the League of Nations: Nobel peace prize 1920

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bour•geois

(bʊərˈʒwɑ, ˈbʊər ʒwɑ)

n., pl. -geois,
adj. n.

1. a member of the bourgeoisie or middle class.

2. a person who is generally materialistic and concerned with respectability and convention.

3. a shopkeeper or merchant.

adj.

4. belonging to, characteristic of, or consisting of the middle class.

5. characterized by or concerned with materialism and convention.

[1555–65; < Middle French; Old French borgeis burgess]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	bourgeois - a capitalist who engages in industrial commercial enterprise businessperson capitalist - a person who invests capital in a business (especially a large business) accountant, comptroller, controller - someone who maintains and audits business accounts account executive, account representative, customer's broker, customer's man, registered representative - someone in charge of a client's account for an advertising agency or brokerage or other service business broker, factor, agent - a businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a commission businessman, man of affairs - a person engaged in commercial or industrial business (especially an owner or executive) businesswoman - a female businessperson enterpriser, entrepreneur - someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it exporter - a businessperson who transports goods abroad (for sale) importer - someone whose business involves importing goods from outside (especially from a foreign country) merchandiser, merchant - a businessperson engaged in retail trade shipper - someone who ships goods provider, supplier - someone whose business is to supply a particular service or commodity
	2.	bourgeois - a member of the middle class burgher bourgeoisie, middle class - the social class between the lower and upper classes common man, common person, commoner - a person who holds no title petit bourgeois - a member of the lower middle class
Adj.	1.	bourgeois - (according to Marxist thought) being of the property-owning class and exploitive of the working class capitalistic, capitalist - favoring or practicing capitalism
	2.	bourgeois - conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class; "a bourgeois mentality" materialistic, conservative middle-class - occupying a socioeconomic position intermediate between those of the lower classes and the wealthy
	3.	bourgeois - belonging to the middle class middle-class - occupying a socioeconomic position intermediate between those of the lower classes and the wealthy

bourgeois

adjective middle-class, conservative, traditional, conventional, provincial, suburban, small-town, materialistic, conformist, property-owning, hidebound, Pooterish the bourgeois ideology of individualism

Quotations
"The bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self" [Hermann Hesse Steppenwolf]
"Destroy him as you will, the bourgeois always bounces up - execute him, expropriate him, starve him out en masse, and he reappears in your children" [Cyril Connolly]
"How beastly the bourgeois is"
"Especially the male of the species" [D.H. Lawrence How Beastly the Bourgeois Is]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

bourgeois Bürger

burgués

keskiluokkakeskiluokkainenporoporvariporoporvarillinenporvari

bourgeois bourgeoisement

borghese

burguês

буржуа буржуазный мещанин

bourgeois

[ˈbʊəʒwɑː]

A. ADJ → burgués

B. N → burgués/esa m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bourgeois

[bʊə^rˈʒwɑː] adj → bourgeois(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

bourgeois

n → Bürger(in) m(f), → Bourgeois m (esp Sociol); (pej) → Spießbürger(in) m(f), → Spießer m

adj → bürgerlich; (pej) → spießbürgerlich, spießig

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

bourgeois

[ˈbʊəʒwɑː] adj & n → borghese (m/f)

References in classic literature ?

The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with clash antagonisms.

The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois.

View in context

The coadjutor proceeded onward to the quay by way of the Rue de la Monnaie; there he found groups of bourgeois clad in black cloaks or gray, according as they belonged to the upper or lower bourgeoisie.

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Capitalism was adjudged by the sociologists of the time to be the culmination of bourgeois rule, the ripened fruit of the bourgeois revolution.

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There was nothing notable in the event which thus set the bells and the bourgeois of Paris in a ferment from early morning.

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I knew something of the bourgeois of Geneva, now I know something of the bourgeois of Brussels; if I went to London, I would know something of the bourgeois of London.

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Still she did not deem it necessary to conceal her employer's poverty, which was soon divulged to the porteress, and by her to the bourgeois.

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There are such women, and they will love you just as readily as any pusillanimous product of bourgeois sheltered life."

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"Vous etes le bourgeois?"* the officer asked Gerasim.

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He considered them bourgeois, and found more diversion at the club.

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For the benefit of readers voracious for everything about everybody, schedule chapters might be provided by inferior novelists, good at painting say tiresome bourgeois fathers, gouty uncles and brothers in the army, as sometimes in great pictures we read that the sheep in the foreground have been painted by Mr.

View in context

And, when the whim changes, it is most easy and delightfully disconcerting to play with the respectable and cowardly bourgeois fetishes and to laugh and epigram at the flitting god-ghosts and the debaucheries and follies of wisdom.