bougie

Meanings

Noun

• A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie.
• A wax candle.

Adjective

• Behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status, middle-class / bourgeois people .
• fancy or good-looking, without the same connotations of snobbery or pretentiousness as in sense 1.

Related

Similar words

• chichi
• high and mighty
• ritzy
• saditty
• snobby

Origin

• Borrowed from French bougie ("wax candle"), after the Algerian city Bougie (Béjaïa), and the tapered, hand-dipped candles it made. The medical instruments were originally made from waxed linen.
• From bourgeoisie.