1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and 2 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:09,239 Speaker 1: there's chalk and Jerry's sitting in for Dave. So it's 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,639 Speaker 1: short stuff. You basic person. 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:16,280 Speaker 2: You calling me bougie? 5 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:20,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, no not. I wouldn't do that. I think it's 6 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:21,960 Speaker 1: kind of a mean thing to say to somebody, at 7 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:24,920 Speaker 1: least in America. In France, they're like, yes, you're right, 8 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: thank you. In America, it's a bit of a put down. 9 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 3: That's right. And that's what we're talking about today, where 10 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 3: you're talking about a word bourgeois. B oh you r 11 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 3: G E O I s. Yeah, not to be confused 12 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 3: with bourgeoisie. 13 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 1: Correct, Well, yeah, they're very closely related. Bourgeois can mean 14 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,520 Speaker 1: a It can be an adjective and a noun. Right, 15 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: If it's a nown, you're talking about one person who 16 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: is bourgeois. So that's their behavior where it's the one 17 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:04,120 Speaker 1: person bourgeoisie as all of the people who are bourgeois. 18 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:07,040 Speaker 1: It's a noun only, okay, everybody. There's gonna be a 19 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: quiz at the end of this episode. 20 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:12,320 Speaker 3: But if you if you talk to Americans, a lot 21 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 3: of Americans probably hear bourgeois and they think, oh, fancy 22 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,279 Speaker 3: fancy fancy, right, And that is not the case because 23 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,959 Speaker 3: bourgeois refers to like you called me, basics or sort 24 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 3: of a middle class basic individual, yes, or group of individuals. 25 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 1: Right. But there's a there's a long road between the 26 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: original version of bourgeois that we'll talk about and then 27 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: the American version that it has now and right, smack 28 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 1: dab in the middle are the commis, specifically Karl Marx. 29 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:51,360 Speaker 1: I don't understand why Joseph Engles never gets his due 30 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: because he and Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto. But it's 31 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: always just Karl Marx. Karl Marx, you know, must drive 32 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: angles crazy. But in eighteen forty eight they published the 33 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: Communist Manifesto, and in that they adopted the word that 34 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,839 Speaker 1: had formerly been middle class people. It wasn't really much 35 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: of a put down, it wasn't. It was just a 36 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: useful word for a while. He equated them with the 37 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,079 Speaker 1: people who owned the capital that the labor was produced on, 38 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: and decided that they were exploiting the proletariat, the working class. Right, 39 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: that's right. 40 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 3: And he was writing in German, so of course he 41 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 3: did not say bourgeois. He said bergiar lche Gesellschaft and English. 42 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: Make sureman sound beautiful, Chuck, thank. 43 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:38,360 Speaker 2: You, Donka. 44 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 3: In America they may translate that as sybil society or 45 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,919 Speaker 3: maybe a bourgeois society. But either way you slice it, 46 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:50,359 Speaker 3: what he's saying is the bourgeoisie are are the bad people. 47 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: They're the one they're exploitive, They're not actually doing anything. 48 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 1: They just own the stuff that the people are actually 49 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: doing something or using to do the thing that they're doing. 50 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,440 Speaker 1: But really the bourgeoisie are the ones who are making 51 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:06,799 Speaker 1: the money off the working class in their labor right. 52 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:10,079 Speaker 1: So it was not it was not at this at 53 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: this time, it was not viewed as a very popular 54 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: or it wasn't it wasn't praise. How about that no 55 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: one ever used it for praise by this time and 56 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: when it finally crossed the Atlantic to America around the 57 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: early twentieth century, the wobbles the industrial workers of the 58 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: world who were I believe we talked about them before, 59 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: and they were split between communists and anarchists, and there 60 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: was a big struggle I think between the two. But 61 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 1: regardless of whether you're a communist or an anarchists, at 62 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: the beginning of the twentieth century. You were not a 63 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: fan of the bourgeoisie. And yeah, so the Wobbleys did 64 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: not like the bourgeoisie either, and then in fact came 65 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: up with a new slang term for him. 66 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 3: That's right. The slang word was boushois bushwa. And what's weird? 67 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 3: I think that was an a quote from a nineteen 68 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 3: seventy article. What's weird, though, is that that word boushwa 69 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 3: eventually was sort of morphed into a slang for bs, 70 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 3: like somebody's full of hot air, or bs someone you 71 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 3: know is full of bushwi. 72 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: Right, we have to thank our friends at the Grammarphobia 73 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: blog for digging that stuff up. 74 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:24,279 Speaker 2: That's right. 75 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: And then so it also kind of morphed in a 76 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:33,279 Speaker 1: new way, kind of the way that we view it today. 77 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: But a little yeah, I guess it was pretty much 78 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,479 Speaker 1: the way we view it today. It first pops up 79 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: in black culture, where it kind of morphed thanks to 80 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: Gladys Knight and the Pips. They had a disco hit 81 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty called Bougie Bougie. 82 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:50,440 Speaker 3: And can we hear a snippet? 83 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:54,039 Speaker 1: No, we can't, unfortunately, but if you want to hear 84 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:56,720 Speaker 1: any of the song Boogie Bougie. You can find it 85 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 1: on YouTube or just about anywhere where you can listen 86 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: to it free and clear. But it's a great song 87 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: and I strongly recommend people go listen to it. 88 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:07,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, and that would be be o u r g 89 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 3: I E comma b o u r g i. 90 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:12,839 Speaker 1: E right, and the whole the whole point of the 91 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: song is it's about somebody who comes from the working 92 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,599 Speaker 1: class or a poorer background but started to make money 93 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: and now they're flaunting it. They have like a new 94 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: car with the sun roof, they have new clothes, and 95 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: it was a it was a commentary on them, but 96 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:30,360 Speaker 1: also kind of like a snide one too, like like 97 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: these these people are being tacky in a way and 98 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:36,159 Speaker 1: forgetting who they are where they come from. 99 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:38,840 Speaker 3: I guess yeah, it's kind of like that that new 100 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 3: money old money thing, which is just so. 101 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I say we take a break, chuck. 102 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 3: Yes, I was. 103 00:05:45,360 --> 00:06:14,160 Speaker 2: About to say that nice. 104 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 3: Softly, jaw. 105 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:10,160 Speaker 1: Soft. 106 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,200 Speaker 3: So if you want to go back to the original bougie, 107 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:21,839 Speaker 3: if you want to go back to France. The original 108 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 3: meaning is from a French word b o u r g, 109 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:26,839 Speaker 3: which I guess would that be Bourg. 110 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:29,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of like berg on the end of a town. 111 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:33,160 Speaker 3: Okay, and that's like a small town or a small 112 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:37,440 Speaker 3: market in the Middle Ages. The people that live there 113 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 3: sort of adopted that name for themselves, so it kind 114 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:41,960 Speaker 3: of this this word is just morphing and morphing all 115 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 3: over the place over the years. They were one step 116 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,280 Speaker 3: up from like a farming peasant, so they were sort 117 00:06:47,279 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 3: of the middle class of the. 118 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:52,000 Speaker 1: Time, right, which is just the way that it was. 119 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: Again I said, it was like a useful word. It 120 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,359 Speaker 1: wasn't like a put down. It wasn't like a compliment. 121 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:00,360 Speaker 1: It was like you are bourgeois. That's that's that descriptor right, 122 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: very nice. And it wasn't until the seventeenth century, specifically, 123 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:08,160 Speaker 1: I think in sixteen seventy when Moliere, the French playwright, 124 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,559 Speaker 1: came up with a musical comedy he was hilarious called 125 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:19,520 Speaker 1: Le Bourgeois gentle Gentleumes or the bourgeois Gentleman. And this 126 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:23,880 Speaker 1: is when it takes bourgeois and makes fun of it. 127 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 1: It's Moliere was punching down to the middle class and 128 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: essentially doing the exact same thing that Gladys Knight and 129 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:35,360 Speaker 1: the Pips are doing with bougie bougie they he was 130 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: basically making fun of some middle class social climber who 131 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,480 Speaker 1: was trying to make a name for himself in French society. 132 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 3: That's right, and that would be the definition that is 133 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 3: most sort of thought of today in the twenty first 134 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 3: century when someone says bougie. Another modern musical example is 135 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 3: Atlanta's own from the atl Migos. You ever listen to Migos, Oh, yeah, 136 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 3: it's good stuff. They have a song called bad and 137 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:05,880 Speaker 3: Bougie in this case spelled b o u j e, 138 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:09,080 Speaker 3: and it sort of leans back on that what the 139 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 3: Pips we're talking about? Sort of a new fancy lifestyle. 140 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: Yes, but two things were different. One the Migos made 141 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: their money cooking crack in a crock pot, which is 142 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: a proprietary eponym, and usually there was a oozy in 143 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: the same room too. And two they were proud of 144 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:30,960 Speaker 1: being bougie and all the new money and tacky like 145 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:33,520 Speaker 1: ways that they threw it around like that was the thing. 146 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: It wasn't. It wasn't a put down. They were like, yeah, 147 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:38,720 Speaker 1: I'm bougie. You should have seen the money I had before, 148 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: and now look what I got. 149 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:40,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, totally. 150 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:46,560 Speaker 1: It is a great song. Yeah, okay, so that's where 151 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: we are today. Bougie it's it's essentially a put down, 152 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:52,640 Speaker 1: depending on whether you've claimed it yourself. If most of 153 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:56,120 Speaker 1: the time, if you're calling someone bougie in America, you're 154 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:59,000 Speaker 1: basically saying, like you said at the outset, they're basic, 155 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 1: They're They're lifestyle in their life is just kind of 156 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:05,199 Speaker 1: boring and pedestrian, the middle of the road and what's 157 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:10,959 Speaker 1: the point kind of thing. Usually it's from somebody who well, 158 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:14,480 Speaker 1: they're just being mean essentially, right, Yeah, but in France 159 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: it's not the case. 160 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:21,840 Speaker 3: Yeah, in modern France, it does not mean pedestrian. It's 161 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:27,560 Speaker 3: a little more like good, well mannered, well educated. There's 162 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,599 Speaker 3: there's like three levels supposedly of a Parisian bourgeois, the 163 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:35,280 Speaker 3: nobility or people that are kind of close to nobility, 164 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:37,600 Speaker 3: or the rich or the crime de la creme. You 165 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 3: have the bourgeois de provence, doctors, attorneys, middle class types, 166 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:48,160 Speaker 3: and then the petite bourgeois who are you know, shopkeepers, artists, 167 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:52,520 Speaker 3: you know, kind of self starting, self employed people. 168 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:54,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, and even though there seems to be a bit 169 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: of a hierarchy, to it. They all are. They're behaving 170 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:00,880 Speaker 1: the same way. I think it just depends on how 171 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: much money you have, is what it's really kind of 172 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: carved out between. But the bourgeois in France is exactly 173 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:13,240 Speaker 1: what Americans who don't know what bourgeois means think of. 174 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:17,680 Speaker 1: They're correct, but they're just thinking specifically of the French bourgeois. 175 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,640 Speaker 1: Yeah and yeah, I guess that's about it for being 176 00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:25,080 Speaker 1: bougie and bourgeois and bourgeoisie and Karl Marx and Joseph 177 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,600 Speaker 1: Engels and Migo's and Gladys Knight and the whole lot 178 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:28,840 Speaker 1: of it. 179 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 3: Chuck, Well, we'll follow up in ten years and see 180 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:33,640 Speaker 3: if the definition's changed again. 181 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:40,880 Speaker 1: Great idea. In the meantime, Short Stuff is out. Stuff 182 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:42,880 Speaker 1: You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 183 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:46,560 Speaker 3: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 184 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:49,679 Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.