ETYM French.
The French middle class, particularly such as are concerned in, or dependent on, trade.
(French) The middle classes. The French word originally meant “the freemen of a borough”. It came to mean the whole class above the workers and peasants, and below the nobility. “Bourgeoisie” (and “bourgeois”) has also acquired a contemptuous sense, implying commonplace, philistine respectability. By socialists it is applied to the whole propertied class, as distinct from the proletariat.
1. Qualité de bourgeois.
2. La classe moyenne.
3. (Vieux) L'ensemble des bourgeois (habitants d'un bourg).