bougie
bougie Lexical Profile
bougie Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Aspiring to be of a higher social class than one actually is, or characterized by luxurious, upscale, or pretentious tastes and habits associated with wealth.
"They decided to treat themselves to a bougie dinner at a five-star rooftop restaurant."
• noun
A person who exhibits bourgeois, elitist, or pretentious attitudes and a fondness for upscale luxury.
"His old friends teased him for becoming a total bougie after he moved into the luxury penthouse."
A thin, flexible surgical instrument shaped like a cylinder, inserted into a body passage such as the esophagus or urethra to dilate a stricture, guide a tube, or aid in diagnosis.
"The physician carefully used a flexible bougie to dilate the narrowed esophageal passage."
A slender, tapered cylinder of medicated wax or gelatin designed to be inserted into a body passage such as the urethra or nasal cavity.
"Historically, pharmacists compounded medicated bougies that melted slowly at body temperature."
Word Nuance & Usage
The slang adjective "bougie" (also spelled "boujee" or "boujie") is an informal clipping of "bourgeois" and can be used either mildly pejoratively to mock pretentiousness or playfully to describe indulging in upscale comforts. It is etymologically distinct from the medical noun "bougie," which means a slender cylindrical instrument.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
As a medical noun, borrowed in the mid-18th century from French bougie ('wax candle'), named after the Algerian port town of Béjaïa (formerly Bougie), which historically supplied wax for European candles. As a slang adjective and noun, it emerged in late 20th-century African American Vernacular English as a shortened alteration of bourgeois.