Bourgeois describes the middle class, especially people who value comfort, respectability, and conventional success. The word comes from French, where it originally meant people who lived in towns (called bourgs) and worked as merchants, shopkeepers, or skilled craftspeople, somewhere between wealthy nobles and poor peasants.

Today, bourgeois often carries a slightly mocking tone. When someone calls something bourgeois, they usually mean it's focused on appearances, material comfort, and following social expectations. A fancy suburban house with perfectly trimmed hedges and matching furniture might be called bourgeois. So might caring a lot about having the right clothes, the right car, or the right neighborhood.

Writers and artists sometimes criticize bourgeois values as boring or overly concerned with money and status instead of creativity or adventure. A rebellious teenager might roll their eyes at their parents' bourgeois dinner parties where everyone discusses property values and golf scores.

The word isn't always negative, though. Bourgeois comfort can mean having a stable home, good food, and security. Many people work hard specifically to achieve a bourgeois lifestyle: a comfortable house, reliable income, and time for family. Whether that's admirable or boring often depends on who's talking and what they value most.