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bourgeoisie
[ boor-zhwah-zee; French boor-zhwa-zee ]
noun
- Usually the bourgeoisie. in Marxist theory, the powerful capitalist class that owns and is concerned with property, as contrasted with the wage-earning class, which must concern itself with survival: the interests of the bourgeoisie are opposed to revolution and invested in the status quo:
According to Marx, the rise of the bourgeoisie split the whole of society into two enemy camps—the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Many postcolonial societies in the 21st century are hindered by greedy and repressive bourgeoisies.
- Usually the bourgeoisie. the middle class, made up mainly of entrepreneurs, managers, professionals, and skilled office workers, and often characterized as having conventional tastes and values and prizing respectability:
The pleasure park was for the entertainment of the little town's bourgeoisie on summer evenings, with a dance hall, a gazebo, and other attractions.
These mass-produced postcards of exotic places were intended for consumption by a white, urban bourgeoisie back home.
bourgeoisie
/ ˌbʊəʒwɑːˈziː /
noun
- the middle classes
- (in Marxist thought) the ruling class of the two basic classes of capitalist society, consisting of capitalists, manufacturers, bankers, and other employers. The bourgeoisie owns the most important of the means of production, through which it exploits the working class
bourgeoisie
- In general, the middle class . Applied to the Middle Ages , it refers to townspeople, who were neither nobles nor peasants . In Marxism it refers to those who control the means of production and do not live directly by the sale of their labor. Karl Marx (see also Marx ) distinguished between the “haute” (high) bourgeoisie (industrialists and financiers) and the “petite” (small or “petty”) bourgeoisie (shopkeepers, self-employed artisans, lawyers). Marxism postulates a fundamental conflict between the interests of the bourgeoisie and those of the propertyless workers, the proletariat (see also proletariat ).
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Notes
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Word History and Origins
Origin of bourgeoisie1
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Compare Meanings
How does bourgeoisie compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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Example Sentences
The only thing missing from this bill of particulars was elimination of the bourgeoisie.
They center around two white bourgeoisie women who are the fish out of a water and love proving they can be that dehydrated fish.
First we have to over-throw the bourgeoisie through revolution and change the relations of production.
Raised in a sophisticated Jewish family, an integral part of the Prague haute bourgeoisie, her father was a wealthy banker.
But if Portnoy is himself our satirist, he is merely shocking the bourgeoisie in rather conventional ways.
He was the fourth son of a good bourgeoisie family of Autun, a faithful prelate, an obstinate Royalist and a man of intelligence.
Although a bourgeoisie of strict ideas, Mme. du Bruel welcomed the dancer Tullia, who became her daughter-in-law.
Nevertheless she continued to play the lady of propriety and found entrance into bourgeoisie society.
Her family—that of the bourgeoisie of Nancy—fooled Castanier about the size of her dowry and her "expectations."
The book stirred literary France to its depths, and shook bourgeoisie France with horror.
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