nouveau riche

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French nouveau riche (literally “new rich”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌnuː.vəʊ ˈɹiːʃ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌnu.voʊ ˈɹiʃ/, /ˌnu.voʊ ˈɹɪtʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃ

Noun

nouveau riche (countable and uncountable, plural nouveaux riches)

1. (derogatory) New money; wealthy persons whose fortunes are newly acquired, and who are therefore perceived to lack the refinement of those who were raised wealthy.

   Synonyms: parvenu, arriviste, neo-rich

   Antonyms: vieux riche, nouveau pauvre

   • 1873, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter VII, in The Parisians‎^[1], book III:

     You must find your opening at Paris. I wish you to spend a year in the capital, and live, not extravagantly, like a nouveau riche, but in a way not unsuited to your rank, and permitting you all the social advantages that belong to it.

   • 1921, Lord Frederic Hamilton, Here, There And Everywhere‎^[2]:

     Twenty-four hours later we were both in the vast halls of the Winter Palace in full uniform, as bedizened with gold as a nouveau riche’s drawing-room.

Usage notes

nouveau riche is sometimes treated as a singular noun with the plural nouveaux riches and sometimes as a plural noun with no separate singular form.

Derived terms

• new nouveau riche

Related terms

• nouveau

Translations

new money: wealthy persons whose fortunes are newly acquired, and who are therefore perceived to lack the refinement of those who were raised wealthy

• Afrikaans: nuweryk, nuwegeld
• Arabic: مُحْدَث اَلنَّعْمَة m (muḥdaṯ an-naʕma)
• Armenian: նորահարուստ (hy) (noraharust)
• Belarusian: новыбагаты (nóvybahaty)
• Bulgarian: новобогата́ш m (novobogatáš)
• Burmese: လူချမ်းသာအသစ် (luhkyam:saa.sac)
• Catalan: nou-ric (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 暴發戶／暴发户 (bou⁶ faat³ wu⁶), 土豪 (tou² hou⁴)

  Jin: 發咾猛財的／发咾猛财的 (fah⁴ lau^2-1 meng² cai¹ deh)

  Mandarin: 暴發戶／暴发户 (zh) (bàofāhù), 土豪 (zh) (tǔháo)

• Czech: zbohatlík m
• Esperanto: novriĉulo
• Finnish: uusrikkaat pl
• French: nouveau riche (fr), arriviste (fr) m or f, parvenu (fr) m
• German: Neureicher (de) m, Emporkömmling (de) m, Parvenü (de) m
• Greek: νεόπλουτος (el) m (neóploutos)
• Hebrew: נוּבּוֹרֶישֶׁ (he) (nuvórish)
• Hindi: नए अमीर (nae amīr), कल का नवाब (kal kā navāb)
• Hungarian: újgazdag (hu), parvenü (hu), jöttment (hu)
• Icelandic: nýríkur maður m
• Indonesian: orang kaya baru
• Irish: lucht an nuashaibhris
• Japanese: 成り金 (なりきん, narikin), 成り上がり者 (なりあがりもの, nariagarimono), 出来星 (ja) (できぼし, dekiboshi)
• Korean: 졸부 (jolbu), 벼락부자 (byeorakbuja), 돈주 (donju) (North Korea)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: dinyanedîtî (ku)

• Latin: novus homo m
• Lithuanian: iškilėlis
• Mongolian: шинэбаян (šinebajan)
• Persian: نودولتان (noddoltân)
• Polish: nowobogacki (pl) m, nuworysz (pl) m, nowobogacz, dorobkiewicz (pl) m, parweniusz (pl) m
• Portuguese: parvenu (pt) m or f, arrivista (pt) m or f, novo-rico (pt) m
• Romanian: parvenit (ro) m, ajuns (ro) m, căpătuit (ro) m
• Russian: нувори́ш (ru) m (nuvoríš), парвеню́ (ru) m (parvenjú), вы́скочка (ru) m or f (výskočka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: skorojević m, skorojevićka f

• Spanish: arribista (es) m or f, nuevo rico (es) m
• Swedish: nyrik (sv)
• Tagalog: bagong-yaman, biglang-yaman
• Turkish: sonradan görme (tr), kıro (tr)
• Vietnamese: nhà giàu mới nổi

Adjective

nouveau riche (not comparable)

1. Newly rich; like a nouveau riche.
   • 1899, Edith Wharton, “A Cup of Cold Water”, in The Greater Inclination‎^[3]:

     Her supreme charm was the simplicity that comes of taking it for granted that people are born with carriages and country-places: it never occurred to her that such congenital attributes could be matter for self-consciousness, and she had none of the nouveau riche prudery which classes poverty with the nude in art and is not sure how to behave in the presence of either.

Translations

newly rich

• Finnish: uusrikas (fi)
• German: neureich (de)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nu.vo ʁiʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

nouveau riche m (plural nouveaux riches)

1. nouveau riche

   Synonyms: arriviste, parvenu

Indonesian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French nouveau riche (literally “new rich”).

Noun

nouveau riche

1. nouveau riche, new money: wealthy persons whose fortunes are newly acquired, and who are therefore perceived to lack the refinement of those who were raised wealthy.

   Synonym: orang kaya baru

Further reading

• “nouveau riche” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.