Definitions

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

  • noun A person who has suddenly risen to a higher social and economic class and has not yet gained social acceptance by others in that class.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One newly risen into notice, especially by an accident of fortune and beyond his birth or apparent deserts, whether as a claimant for a place in society or as occupying a position of authority; an upstart.
  • Like or characteristic of a parvenu or upstart.

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

  • noun An upstart; a man newly risen into notice.

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

  • noun A person who has risen, climbed up, or has been promoted to a higher social class, especially through acquisition of wealth, rights, or political authority but has not gained social acceptance by those within that new class.
  • adjective this sense?) Being a parvenu; also, like or having the characteristics of a parvenu.

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

  • noun a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class
  • adjective characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position
  • adjective of or characteristic of a parvenu

Etymologies

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

[French, from past participle of parvenir, to arrive, from Latin pervenīre : per, through; see per in Indo-European roots + venīre, to come; see gwā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French parvenu, from French parvenir, from Latin perveniō ("arrive, reach").

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Examples

Comments

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  • a nouveau riche?

    March 23, 2009

  • "Only old Catherine Mingott, with her absence of moral prejudices and almost parvenu indifference to the subtler distinctions, might have bridged the abyss; but she had never opened a book or looked at a picture, and cared for music only because it reminded her of gala nights at the Italiens, in the days of her triumph at the Tuileries."

    - Edith Wharton, 'The Age of Innocence'.

    September 19, 2009

  • Wharton! oh goody!

    September 19, 2009

  • noun An upstart; a man newly risen into notice.

    A man, huh. Really? How old is this definition?

    August 5, 2020