| 释义 |
‖ petit bourgeois|pəti burʒwa|
Also fem. petite bourgeoise; pl. petits bourgeois; fem. petites bourgeoises.
[Fr., lit. ‘little citizen’: see bourgeois n.1 and a.]
A member of the middle or commercial classes in a society; freq. in derogatory use, one judged to have conventional or conservative political and social attitudes. Also fig. and (freq. with hyphen) attrib. or as adj. See also petty bourgeois.
1853C. Brontë Villette III. xliii. 338 Should you object to beginning with three petite bourgeoises, the Demoiselles Miret? 1859M. Arnold England & Italian Question iii. 16 How indignant he was with the townspeople, the petits bourgeois. 1887F. Engels in Moore & Aveling tr. Marx's Capital I. i. 39 It is, of course, highly desirable in the eyes of the petit bourgeois, for whom the production of commodities is the ne plus ultra of human freedom and individual independence, that the inconveniences resulting from this character of commodities not being directly exchangeable, should be removed. Ibid. ii. 59 We may form an estimate of the shrewdness of the petit-bourgeois socialism, which, while perpetuating the production of commodities, aims at abolishing the ‘antagonism’ between money and commodities, and consequently,..at abolishing money itself: We might just as well try to retain Catholicism without the Pope. 1897G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) III. 79 She suddenly drops from an Egyptian warrior queen into a naughty English petite bourgeoise. 1931Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Oct. 755/1 ‘Elise Hermann’..takes the reader into a petit bourgeois world. 1939S. Spender tr. Toller's Pastor Hall ii. 82 We called freedom a petit bourgeois phrase, so little did we know what slavery is. 1942E. Waugh Put out More Flags iii. 216 The provincial petit-bourgeois youth floundering and groping in the gloom of Teutonic adolescence. 1943C. Gray Contingencies (1947) i. 11 Arthur Rimbaud..sought refuge in the existence of a typical French petit bourgeois from the terrible and terrifying realities which confronted him. 1954Koestler Invis. Writing 25 Revulsion against this code was a sign of sentimental petit-bourgeois prejudice. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Sept. 525/3 Comrade Nemeth is an ambitious bureaucrat, anxious to allay the guilt of his petit bourgeois birth by utter conformity to proletarian party standards. 1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 163 Sam and Eleanor do not think of themselves as really belonging to a class, and they feel that the Sperbers and Rossmans are petit-bourgeois. 1973Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 25 Sept. 22/3 The children of an ideology dominated by petit bourgeois sexual repression. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 160 His [sc. Harold Wilson's] natural modesty has remained unchanged. So have his modest tastes, his simple liking of high tea, his completely unaffected petit-bourgeois habits. 1975A. Beevor Violent Brink iii. 56 She was a fraud; a petit [sic] bourgeoise in revolt..for emotional reasons. 1976J. M. Brownjohn tr. Kirst's Time for Payment iii. 58 You're putting a petit bourgeois cat among the pigeons.
Hence petite (erron. petit) bourgeoisie |pətit burʒwazi|, the middle classes collectively (see bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie).
1916A. E. Gallatin Certain Contemporaries 53 In all his studies of bohemians, vagabonds and the petite bourgeoisie, there exists only tenderness and sympathy. 1928F. Stark Let. 26 Oct. (1974) I. 179 They are all good—Scotch of the very petite bourgeoisie—city folk. 1930N. & Q. 10 May 325/1 The intellectual man is..frequently drawn from the peasantry or the petite bourgeoisie. 1949N. Marsh Swing, Brother, Swing xi. 250 He..and our Mr. Eton-and-Oxford Detective-Sergeant Salis got into a discussion about the petit bourgeoisie. 1950A. L. Rowse England of Elizabeth v. 174 The petite-bourgeoisie were a strong element in Cromwell's support. 1970Times 11 Mar. 11/2 There is today a strong Conservative government in power, to which the petite bourgeoisie naturally looks. 1976Brit. Jrnl. Sociol. XXVII. 50 It is a good idea to bear in mind Rosenberg's taunt: ‘Amateur sociologists have generally concluded that the petit-bourgeoisie was that mysterious class with the aid of which Hitler and Mussolini won their victory.’ |