Word of the Day - 01/19/26
bourgeois
/bʊr'ʒwɑ/(n.): a member of the middle class
She was proud to be a bourgeois, working hard to maintain her comfortable lifestyle.
(adj.): (according to Marxist thought) being of the property-owning class and exploitive of the working class
Marxists argued that the bourgeois class perpetuated economic inequality through their ownership of the means of production.
(adj.): conforming to the standards and conventions of or belonging to the middle class
Their bourgeois values emphasized financial stability and social respectability.
Word Origin
The word 'bourgeois' originates from Old French 'burgeis', meaning 'a citizen of a borough or town'. It is composed of 'bourg', meaning a fortified town or market town (derived from Germanic 'burgs'), and the suffix '-eis' (or '-ois'), which denotes origin or inhabitant. Thus, 'bourgeois' literally translates to 'of the bourg' or 'town dweller'.
Words with similar origins include 'burgess' (an archaic English term for a citizen of a borough), 'borough' itself (an administrative division derived from the concept of a fortified town), and 'burglar' (originally someone who breaks into a dwelling or 'burg'). The Germanic root 'burg' is also present in German words like 'Burg' (castle, fortress, town).