Parvenue

Parvenue is a noun and, less commonly, an adjective in English borrowed from the French parvenu, meaning "arrived." It designates a person who has recently acquired wealth or social status, particularly someone who lacks the background, education, or polish traditionally associated with that status. The term is commonly used with a pejorative or critical nuance, implying pretentiousness, snobbery, or an attempt to imitate established elites rather than being accepted as part of them.

Etymology and forms: Parvenu comes from the French parvenu, the past participle of parvenir, meaning to succeed or arrive. The word entered English in the 18th century and has since carried connotations of social climbing. The feminine form in French, parvenue, is sometimes retained in English usage; English variants typically use parvenu for either gender, though parvenue appears when the speaker wishes to mark gender explicitly.

Usage and nuance: Parvenu is often deployed in discussions of class, manners, or cultural capital, especially in literary, journalistic, or social commentary contexts. It tends to emphasize an outsider status or affectation rather than mere wealth, setting apart the newly affluent who are perceived as imitating established elites from those who are already integrated into the upper class.

See also: nouveau riche, arriviste, social mobility, social climber. The term remains largely stylistic and is less common in formal or neutral reporting, where more neutral descriptors of socioeconomic status are preferred.