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  1. bourgeois love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A person belonging to the middle class.
  2. n. A person whose attitudes and behavior are marked by conformity to the standards and conventions of the middle class.
  3. n. In Marxist theory, a member of the property-owning class; a capitalist.
  4. adj. Of, relating to, or typical of the middle class.
  5. adj. Held to be preoccupied with respectability and material values.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In France, a citizen; a burgher; a man of middle rank.
  2. n. A small French coin of the fourteenth century. The bourgeois simple was worth about a cent and a half, the bourgeois fort twice as much.
  3. Belonging to or consisting of trades-people or citizens of middle rank: as, bourgeois surroundings; the bourgeois class of France.
  4. Wanting in dignity or refinement; common; mean.
  5. n. A size of printing-type measuring about 100 lines to the foot, next larger than brevier and smaller than long-primer.
  6. n. This line is printed in bourgeois.
  7. n. See bourgeois.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Of or relating to the middle class, especially its attitudes and conventions.
  2. adj. Belonging to the middle class.
  3. adj. Conventional, conservative and materialistic.
  4. adj. Marxism Of or relating to capitalist exploitation of the proletariat.
  5. n. politics, collectively The middle class.
  6. n. rare An individual member of the middle class.
  7. n. A person with bourgeois values and attitudes.
  8. n. An individual member of the bourgeoisie, one of the three estates.
  9. n. Marxism Anyone deemed to be an exploiter of the proletariat, a capitalist.

GNU Webster's 1913

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

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class
  2. adj. belonging to the middle class
  3. adj. (according to Marxist thought) being of the property-owning class and exploitive of the working class
  4. n. a capitalist who engages in industrial commercial enterprise
  5. n. a member of the middle class

Etymologies

  1. 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. (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from Old French burgeis, citizen of a town, from bourg, bourg; see bourg. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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

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

    Making Patriots

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

    The Nabob, Vol. 2 (of 2)

  • “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

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

    The Somnambulists

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

    Chapter 40

  • “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

  • “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

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

    Simon & Schuster: Champlain's Dream

  • “But I include in the word bourgeois, the bourgeois in blouses as well the bourgeois in coats.”

    The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters

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synonyms (2)

Words with the same meaning

  1. burgess
  1. square

equivalents (3)

Other words for ‘bourgeois’

  1. middle class
  1. capitalist
  1. capitalistic

same context (15)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. democratic
  2. middle class
  3. aristocratic
  1. modern
  2. feudal
  3. reactionary
  1. colonial
  2. socialist
  3. secular
  1. capitalist
  2. revolutionary
  3. monarchical
  1. patriarchal
  2. conservative
  3. cultural

rhymes (68)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Ah
  2. Artois
  3. Bogota
  4. Ca
  5. Da
  6. Dumas
  7. Fatah
  8. Francois
  9. Ga
  10. Ha
  11. Hsia
  12. Ka
  13. La
  1. Law
  2. Ma
  3. Na
  4. Pa
  5. Ra
  6. Sa
  7. Sanaa
  8. Shah
  9. Spa
  10. Ta
  11. Valois
  12. ah
  13. aha
  1. ahh
  2. awe
  3. baccarat
  4. bah
  5. blah
  6. bois
  7. bra
  8. ca
  9. cha
  10. da
  11. dumas
  12. fatah
  13. ha
  1. hah
  2. hua
  3. hurrah
  4. ja
  5. joie
  6. ka
  7. la
  8. law
  9. ma
  10. mah
  11. markkaa
  12. na
  13. nah
  1. pa
  2. pasha
  3. qua
  4. ra
  5. rah
  6. raw
  7. rha
  8. sanaa
  9. sha
  10. shah
  11. spa
  12. ta
  13. voila
  1. wah
  2. ya
  3. yah

reverse dictionary (17)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. bourgeois
  2. long primer
  3. brevier
  1. opression
  2. long-primer
  3. Mauriac
  1. Daumier
  2. Marxism
  3. embourgeoisement
  1. thomas mann
  2. Bourgeois
  3. conventional
  1. townselike
  2. honore daumier
  3. Mann
  1. primer
  2. mamamouchi

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. french
  1. typography
  1. SATWOTD

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‘bourgeois’ has been looked up 5535 times, loved by 7 people, added to 87 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.