parvenu

Meanings

Noun

• 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.

Adjective

• Being a parvenu; also, like, having the characteristics of, or associated with a parvenu.

Related

Similar words

• arriviste

Origin

• Borrowed from French parvenu, past participle of parvenir, from Latin perveniō.
• See also parvenue. Parvenu/parvenue is one of the few words in English which have two forms distinguished according to gender.