bourgeoisie

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bour·geoi·sie

(bo͝or′zhwä-zē′)

1. The middle class.

2. In Marxist theory, the social group opposed to the proletariat in the class struggle.

[French, from bourgeois, bourgeois; see bourgeois.]

bourgeoisie

(ˌbʊəʒwɑːˈziː)

1. (Sociology) the middle classes

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) (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

bour•geoi•sie

(ˌbʊər ʒwɑˈzi)

n.

1. the middle class.

2. (in Marxist theory) the property-owning capitalist class in conflict with the proletariat.

[1700–10; < French; see bourgeois¹, -y³]

Bourgeoisie

bourgeois collectively or as a class, the French middle class, 1707; also extended to other nationalities.

bourgeoisie

1. People who, in the capitalist system, own the means of production, i.e. those things which are used to produce commodities, such as factories, machinery, and finance. According to Marx, as society moved from feudalism to capitalism, the bourgeoisie replaced the aristocracy as the real power holders. A distinction is sometimes made between the petite bourgeoisie (small property owners such as tradesmen, shopkeepers, and craftsmen) and the haute bourgeoisie (large scale property owners such as company owners.)

2. The class in society who control the means of production, such as capitalists and large employers, and, according to Marxist theory, oppress the working class.

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Noun

bourgeoisie - the social class between the lower and upper classes

middle class

social class, socio-economic class, stratum, class - people having the same social, economic, or educational status; "the working class"; "an emerging professional class"

petite bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, petit bourgeois - lower middle class (shopkeepers and clerical staff etc.)

bourgeois, burgher - a member of the middle class

Translations

bourgeoisie

[ˌbʊəʒwɑːˈziː] N → burguesía f

bourgeoisie

[ˌbʊə^rʒwɑːˈziː] n → bourgeoisie f

bourgeoisie

n → Bürgertum nt, → Bourgeoisie f

bourgeoisie

[ˌbʊəʒwɑːˈziː] n → borghesia

References in classic literature ?

Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms: Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

From these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie were developed.

The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie.

This development has, in its time, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages.

We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.

Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class.

View in context

The imbecile bourgeoisie of this country make themselves the accomplices of the very people whose aim is to drive them out of their houses to starve in ditches.

What is the fetish of the hour that all the bourgeoisie recognise - eh, Mr Verloc?

View in context

And in place of the merchant class of bourgeoisie will be the labor castes.

View in context

The old maid gave a glance of appeal to the chevalier; but the gallant recorder of mortgages, who was beginning to see in the manners of that gentleman the barrier which the provincial nobles were setting up about this time between themselves and the bourgeoisie, made the most of his chance to cut out Monsieur de Valois.

It was at the end of the first course that Mademoiselle Cormon made the most celebrated of her "speeches"; it was talked about for fully two years, and is still told at the gatherings of the lesser bourgeoisie whenever the topic of her marriage comes up.

View in context

Elisabeth Baudoyer, nee Saillard, is one of those persons who escape portraiture through their utter commonness; yet who ought to be sketched, because they are specimens of that second-rate Parisian bourgeoisie which occupies a place above the well-to-do artisan and below the upper middle classes,--a tribe whose virtues are well-nigh vices, whose defects are never kindly, but whose habits and manners, dull and insipid though they be, are not without a certain originality.