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bourgeois

 [boor-zhwah, boor-zhwah; Fr. boor-zhwa]   Example Sentences Origin

bour·geois

1   [boor-zhwah, boor-zhwah; Fr. boor-zhwa] noun, plural -geois, adjective
noun
1.
a member of the middle class.
2.
a person whose political, economic, and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.
3.
a shopkeeper or merchant.
adjective
4.
belonging to, characteristic of, or consisting of the middle class.
5.
conventional; middle-class.
6.
dominated or characterized by materialistic pursuits or concerns.

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Bourgeois is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
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Origin:
1555–65; < Middle French; Old French borgeis burgess
Example Sentences
  • She wrote much of her own work, pushing the limits of bourgeois tolerance.
  • Rising inequality has led to two debates: one about bourgeois values, the other about an underclass.
  • Lily can neither face the decision to marry a bourgeois nor can she bear excommunication from the only world she knows.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

bour·geois

2   [ber-jois]
noun Printing.
a size of type approximately 9-point, between brevier and long primer.
Origin:
1815–25; perhaps from a printer so named

Bour·geois

   [boor-zhwah, boor-zhwah; Fr. boor-zhwa]
noun
1.
Lé·on Vic·tor Au·guste  [ley-awn veek-tawr oh-gyst] , 1851–1925, French statesman: Nobel peace prize 1920.
2.
Louise, born 1911, U.S. sculptor, born in France.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To bourgeois
Collins
World English Dictionary
bourgeois1 (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]
 
bourgeoise1
 
—fem n

bourgeois2 (bəˈdʒɔɪs)
 
—n
(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)
 
—n
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 & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

bourgeois
1560s, "of the French middle class," from Fr. bourgeois, from O.Fr. burgeis, borjois "town dweller" (see bourgeoisie). Sense of "socially or aesthetically conventional" is from 1764; in communist and socialist writing, as a noun, "a capitalist" (1883).
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"It is better to be a good ordinary bourgeois than a bad ordinary bohemian." [Aldous Huxley, 1930]
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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