• parvenu •
Printable Version Pronunciation: pah(r)-ve-nu • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A member of the nouveau riche who has suddenly risen to a much higher income level but is rejected by those of older wealth, ostensibly for lack of the social graces associated with that social level.
Notes: A member of the nouveau riche is someone who has recently become wealthy and who flaunts his or her wealth. We contrast them with Old Money, those who make money the old fashioned way—they inherit it. A parvenu is a member of the nouveau riche who lacks the grace and panache expected of old money (the elite upper-class). Parvenu, like all nouns in English, may be used as an adjective, as someone's parvenu antics.
In Play: You don't have to misbehave to be a parvenu; a parvenu may be rejected by Old Money on general principles: "All the parvenus were seated in the back of the banquet hall, away from genuine bluebloods." One of the differences between Old Money and parvenus is that the conspicuous consumption of the former is not exhibitionist: "What could be more parvenu than the race between Paul Allen (Microsoft) and Larry Ellison (Oracle) to build the longest yacht in the world?"
Word History: Today's French word is the past participle of parvenir "to arrive", which goes back to Latin pervenire, based on per "through" + venire "to come". Per goes back to a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root meaning "forward, through" that came down to English as for and fore, as well as first. In Greek it emerges as peri "around, near", found in periscope and periodontist. Venire "to come" appears in the phrase, venite adoremus "come let us adore him", in the Christmas carol, "Come all Ye Faithful" (Adeste Fideles). It goes back to a PIE root gwa- "come, go", which is also the source of English go. In Latin the [g] disappeared and the W (double U when U was spelled V) became V (single U). (We would like to offer Kurt Bonifay a wealth of gratitude for bringing up today's Good Word.)
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