Bourgie

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Tue, Sep 24, 2002 at 12:36:39PM -0400, Baker, John wrote:
>         The Washington Post today used this term, which apparently means "African-American bourgeois."  From page C1:  "A lack of high-end retail is one of many indignities that accompany life in this community, which is in real life and fiction, the bourgie capital of the world."  The community in question is Prince George's County, which the article describes as the most affluent black enclave in the nation.
>
>         The earliest usage I have seen is from the 1/17/89 L.A. Times:

Clarence Major's 1970 Dictionary of Afro-American has this under
_boojy,_ a more usual spelling. My impression is that the _bourgie_
spellings have been on the increase in recent years, but the -oo-
r-less spellings still predominate.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED