nouveau riche

[noo-voh reesh, noo-voh reesh]

noun

plural

nouveaux riches 

1. a person who is newly rich.

   the ostentation of the nouveaux riches of the 1920s.

nouveau riche

/ ˌnuːvəʊ ˈriːʃ, nuvo riʃ /

noun

1. (often plural) a person who has acquired wealth recently and is regarded as vulgarly ostentatious or lacking in social graces

adjective

1. of or characteristic of the nouveaux riches

nouveau riche

1. A pejorative term for one who has recently become rich and who spends money conspicuously. From French, meaning “new rich.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of nouveau riche¹

1805–15; < French: new rich (person)

Word History and Origins

Origin of nouveau riche¹

French, literally: new rich

Example Sentences

Thirty years later, India's flourishing tech-driven economy of start-ups and creators has birthed a nouveau riche that's afforded Soho House exactly another such market opportunity.

From BBC

Who does Johnson consider nouveau riche?

From Los Angeles Times

In February 2022, Ms. Peterson, an author and art collector, was surrounded by a new clientele: the crypto nouveau riche, who made a temporary home of the art market.

From New York Times

On the HBO costume drama “The Gilded Age,” Kelli O’Hara plays a New York grande dame forced to choose sides in an opera war: remain at the old guard’s Academy of Music, or defect to the Metropolitan Opera being built by the nouveau riche they had excluded.

From New York Times

Filled with high-stake dramatic shoot-outs and neon nouveau riche glamour, the six-part Netflix series Griselda presents the notorious criminal as a hard done by yet savvy and ambitious woman.

From BBC