Parvenu (from French parvenu “successful, rich, upstart”) - a man of noble origin, who has gained access to the aristocratic milieu and imitates the aristocrats in their behavior and manners; upstart [1] .
Content
- 1 The content of the concept in historical retrospective
- 2 The psychological aspect of the concept
- 3 See also
- 4 notes
The content of the concept in historical retrospect
To some extent, the word is an anachronism , and is used, first of all, as a historical term , in particular, in relation to successful personalities of the past who, thanks to their actions (often talents ), managed to break through to the highest levels of society, which were occupied by the aristocracy (often hereditary) [ 2] .
In the Russian Empire , where the tradition of hereditary dynasties was relatively often interrupted, and the ruler personified absolutist power, there were frequent cases when a parvenu entered the elite (for example, Grigory Potemkin ).
The psychological aspect of the concept
From a psychological point of view, parvenues are characterized by inheritance (sometimes repetition) of manners, behavior, and customs of the aristocracy. In practice, this often means racing for luxury against the backdrop of artistic bad taste .
See also
- Nouveau riche
- Snobbery
Notes
- ↑ New dictionary of the Russian language. Interpretative and derivational. 2005, Efremova T.F.
- ↑ Vocabulary of the words of the Slavs., K .: GR URE, 1975, st. 502 (Ukrainian)