parvenu

American  

[pahr-vuh-noo, -nyoo, pahr-vuh-noo, -nyoo] / ˈpɑr vəˌnu, -ˌnyu, ˌpɑr vəˈnu, -ˈnyu /

noun

1. a person who has recently or suddenly acquired wealth, importance, position, or the like, but has not yet developed the conventionally appropriate manners, dress, surroundings, etc.

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adjective

1. being or resembling a parvenu.

2. characteristic of a parvenu.

parvenu British  

/ ˈpɑːvəˌnjuː /

noun

1. a person, esp a man, who, having risen socially or economically, is considered to be an upstart or to lack the appropriate refinement for his or her new position

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adjective

1. of or characteristic of a parvenu

Other Word Forms

• parvenudom noun
• parvenuism noun

Etymology

Origin of parvenu

1795–1805; < French: upstart, noun use of past participle of parvenir to arrive, reach < Latin pervenīre, equivalent to per- per- + venīre to come

Example Sentences

Chenoweth, who is as gleaming as a holiday ornament on Liberace’s Christmas tree, arrives at a canny balance of quixotic generosity and parvenu carelessness in her portrayal of a woman she refuses to lampoon.

From Los Angeles Times

Beagin widens her lens to take in this cast of locals and upstate parvenus even as she stays focused on Greta’s rising fever.

From Los Angeles Times

The tendrils of Rangnick’s influence spread far beyond the parvenu clubs — Hoffenheim, Red Bull Salzburg, RB Leipzig — that he has turned into mainstays of either the Bundesliga or the Champions League.

From New York Times

Pianists were the standard accompanists, but Shaw dismissed them as parvenus.

From The New Yorker

PGA Tour ranges are littered with teams of agents, instructors, lackeys and general parvenus.

From Golf Digest