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bourgeois

bourgeois

adjective noun boor-ZHWAH Rare

Origin: Old French borgeis (town dweller)

Also means

middle-class

Usage Note

bourgeois refers to the middle class in a socioeconomic sense, but in everyday French it often carries a critical tone: conservative, materialistic, conventional. As a noun, un bourgeois / une bourgeoise means a middle-class person. The compound petit-bourgeois (lower-middle-class, narrow-minded) is a common pejorative.

Examples

"Ce quartier est très bourgeois."

Natural Translation

This neighbourhood is very middle-class.

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