nouveau riche
1
8.5
- noun
- /nuːˈvoʊ ˈriːʃ/
- Offensive
:
nuevo rico
- You don't think she'll be waited on hand and foot and eat like a true nouveau riche or captain of industry?
You know, there would be phrases like the nouveau riche.
- You know, there would be phrases like the nouveau riche.
Examples
-
Class differences in Blancanieves are manifest in Encarna, who represents the nouveau riche in Spain.
Academic text (2016) -
It served the interests of conservative and veteran business elites against the nouveau riche who were thriving around the turn of the century, and particularly in the 1920s because of various speculations.
Academic text (1991) -
In essence, the nouveaux riches represented the narrow social base of the regime.
Academic text (1995) -
It dealt with the nouveaux riches.
Fiction book (1993) -
Mostly she hears it in the newer suburbs where the nouveau riche believe they're being racy.
Fiction book (1995) -
Note the expensive tastes of the nouveau riche of China who emulate their Western counterparts in the consumption of ultra-status goods.
Academic text (2008) -
Labels like Chateau Lafite or Mouton have a cult status among the country's nouveau riche.
Blog text (31) -
In his 1938 book, The Culture of Cities, Lewis Mumford complained, "Patrons and public alike, the nouveau riche of the metropolis are culture shoppers."
Academic text (1992) -
I have long wondered just what is going on with the incredible standards for gross ugliness and constipated dimensions of even the new "monster mansions," spec houses built to the property lines and sold (I guess) to the nouveau riche?
Blog text (24) -
Many members of the nouveau riche often flaunt their wealth through extravagant parties.
Synonyms
14
4.8
People or families who recently became rich and show their wealth publicly
A person who recently became rich and shows wealth in a loud, not elegant way
Antonyms
How Disdained
Surface Forms
Morphology
nouveau + riche
If a learner knows the French constituents ('nouveau' = new, 'riche' = rich), they can readily infer the core meaning 'newly rich' because the phrase is literally compositional. However, the expression is a foreign loan with idiomatic connotations (ostentatious display of wealth) and an atypical word order in English usage, so the full pragmatic nuance is not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Nouveau riche comes from the French words nouveau ('new') and riche ('rich'). Old rich families used the phrase to mock people who had just become rich and liked to show off, so today it means 'people who recently became wealthy' and often suggests a lack of good taste.