petty-bourgeois
Smugly conventional shopkeeper
Petty-bourgeois describes the attitudes or values associated with the lower middle class—small shopkeepers, independent tradespeople, minor professionals.
In Marxist analysis, this class sits between workers and capitalists, owning modest property but lacking real wealth.
The term is almost always pejorative, suggesting narrow-minded concern with respectability, material security, and conventional success: His petty-bourgeois anxieties about status.
Also spelled petty bourgeois or petit-bourgeois.
Small store manager
- smallholderFarmer of limited land
- tradesmanSkilled manual worker
- artisanSkilled manual tradesperson
- proprietorBusiness holder
clerk · self-employed · mercantile · proletariat · stratum · socioeconomic · guildsman · yeomanry
Lacking breadth of thought
- parochialNarrow in perspective
- provincialRegional or narrow-minded
- snobbishCondescending toward perceived inferiors
- pretentiousFalsely grand or important
self-important · smug · complacent · conformist · insular · cliquish · narrow-minded · moralistic
Earnest sustained endeavor
- aspirationalStriving toward ideals
- gentrifiedMade affluent, displacing residents
- status-seekingPursuing higher position
- ambitiousStrongly desiring achievement
Anti-progress political stance
- vacillatingSwaying between choices
- lumpenproletariatDegraded non-working poor
- opportunismExploiting circumstances for gain
- reformismGradual political change doctrine
revisionism · capitalism · exploitation · ideology · alienation · dialectical · Engels · Marx
Following accepted practices
- traditionalFollowing long-held customs
- respectableWorthy of regard
- proprietyCorrectness of conduct
- decorumFitting social conduct
domesticity · thrift · prudence · industriousness · self-reliance · orderliness · cleanliness · punctuality
shopkeeper
Small store manager
- smallholderFarmer of limited land
- tradesmanSkilled manual worker
- artisanSkilled manual tradesperson
proprietor · clerk · self-employed · mercantile · proletariat · stratum · socioeconomic · guildsman · yeomanry · landlord
small-minded
Lacking breadth of thought
- parochialNarrow in perspective
- provincialRegional or narrow-minded
- snobbishCondescending toward perceived inferiors
pretentious · self-important · smug · complacent · conformist · insular · cliquish · narrow-minded · moralistic · sanctimonious
striving
Earnest sustained endeavor
- aspirationalStriving toward ideals
- gentrifiedMade affluent, displacing residents
- status-seekingPursuing higher position
reactionary
Anti-progress political stance
- vacillatingSwaying between choices
- lumpenproletariatDegraded non-working poor
- opportunismExploiting circumstances for gain
reformism · revisionism · capitalism · exploitation · ideology · alienation · dialectical · Engels · Marx · Gramsci
conventional
Following accepted practices
- traditionalFollowing long-held customs
- respectableWorthy of regard
- proprietyCorrectness of conduct
decorum · domesticity · thrift · prudence · industriousness · self-reliance · orderliness · cleanliness · punctuality · duty
petty-bourgeoisproletarian
Wage laborer, no capital
working-class · propertyless · bourgeois · capitalist · aristocratic
petty-bourgeoisrevolutionary
Seeking fundamental systemic change
radical · class-conscious · collectivist · internationalist · bohemian
petty-bourgeoisaristocratic
Of hereditary nobility
magnate · tycoon · oligarch · industrialist · monopolist
petty, bourgeois, pettiness, pettier, pettiest, bourgeoisie, petit, petite