I. ˈbu̇rzhˌwä, ˈbu̇əzhˌwȧ, ˈbu̇əzhˌwä sometimes ˈbüzh-; sometimes ̷ ̷ˈ ̷ ̷; in sense 4 (ˌ)bərˈjȯis or bəˈj- or bə̄ˈj- noun
( plural bourgeois )
Etymology: Middle French, from Old French borjois, from borc
1.
a. : burgher
b. : a middle-class person : one of the social class whose income derives from the profits of commercial and industrial enterprise especially as distinguished from the landed gentry, the wage earners and farmers, and sometimes the professions : shopkeeper , businessman
2. : one whose social behavior and political views are determined or influenced by private-property interest : capitalist
3. bourgeois plural : bourgeoisie
the talk of disheartened bourgeois and elated intellectuals — J.A.Schumpeter
4. : an old size of type (approximately 9 point) between brevier and long primer — compare point system
5. : one formerly in charge of a trading post in the fur trade of the American Northwest
II. adjective
Etymology: French, from Old French borjois, from borjois, n.
1. : of, belonging to, or characteristic of the townsman or of the social middle class
a solid bourgeois family
the bourgeois virtues of thriftiness, forethought and a serious attitude toward life — Gilbert Cadoffre
bourgeois culture
2. : characterized by selfish concern for material comfort and well-being, by preoccupation with moneymaking or property accumulation, by anxiety about social respectability, and by a tendency toward safe mediocrity in matters of thought, feeling, and artistic taste : philistine — usually used in disparagement
3. of a nation : dominated by commercial and industrial interest : capitalistic