petite bourgeoise

[puh-teet boor-zhwahz, puh-teet boor-zhwaz]

noun

plural

petites bourgeoises 

1. a woman who belongs to the petite bourgeoisie.

Word History and Origins

Origin of petite bourgeoise¹

1850–55; < French; feminine of petit bourgeois

Example Sentences

Mother was Henriette, a grimly independent petite bourgeoise who lived in Li�ge all her life.

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I have struck up a friendship here at Amiens with an excellent woman who presides over a shop—not one of the pâtisseries so justly celebrated by Mr. Ruskin—and who is a very good type of the shrewd, sensible French 'petite bourgeoise,' such a woman as, I dare say, Jacqueline Robins of St.-Omer was in her own time.

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Ah! if only Sabine or Blanche Gerson occupied the position filled by this petite bourgeoise of Grenoble!

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Their doubled tasks involve a greater drain on their physical energies than the petite bourgeoise suffers, especially in those districts devastated by the first German invasion—the valley of the Marne.

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The patronesses of the great couturiers were quite irate at receiving such a lesson from a petite bourgeoise; but all who shared the views expressed by President Dupin a few years previously respecting the "unbridled luxury of women," were naturally delighted.

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