Parvenu
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A person who has risen, climbed up, or has been promoted to a higher social class, especially through acquisition of wealth, privileges, or political authority but has not gained social acceptance by those within that new class.
"But the favourite's power and influence provoke intense ill-feeling among other courtiers, who regard him as a sinister, usurping parvenu with ideas above his station, or perhaps even a sorcerer."
- 2 a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class wordnet
- 1 Being a parvenu; also, like, having the characteristics of, or associated with a parvenu. not-comparable
"Loss of money is far the worst, then comes ill-health, and then loss of reputation; loss of reputation is a bad third, for, if a man keeps health and money unimpaired, it will be generally found that his loss of reputation is due to breaches of parvenu conventions only, and not to violations of those older, better established canons whose authority is unquestionable."
- 1 of or characteristic of a parvenu wordnet
- 2 characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position wordnet
Example
More examples"But the favourite's power and influence provoke intense ill-feeling among other courtiers, who regard him as a sinister, usurping parvenu with ideas above his station, or perhaps even a sorcerer."
Etymology
Borrowed from French parvenu, past participle of parvenir, from Latin perveniō (“arrive, reach”). See also parvenue f
Related phrases
More for "parvenu"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.