petite bourgeoise

[ puh-teet boor-zhwahz; French puh-teet boor-zhwaz ]

noun

, plural pe·tites bour·geoises [p, uh, -, teet, b, oo, r-, zhwahz, p, uh, -teet boo, r, -, zhwaz].

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.

From Time Magazine Archive

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.

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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.

From Project Gutenberg

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.

From Project Gutenberg