🇮🇹Italian Source WordCode: IT

borghese

Pronunciation / Transliteration: /borˈɡɛːze/

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Lace-curtain/ˈleɪsˌkɜː.tən/
adjectivenounCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #14500 frequency
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🇮🇹 Example Sentence in Italian:

"Vivevano in un quartiere borghese."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As adjective
  1. 1

    Denoting or characteristic of a middle-class or socially aspiring group, especially of Irish descent.

    "The family belonged to the lace-curtain Irish community in the Boston suburbs."
  2. 2

    Characterized by pretensions to gentility, respectability, or middle-class status.

    "She maintained a very lace-curtain standard of cleanliness and decorum in her parlor."

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Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the mid-19th to early 20th century cultural association in Ireland and the United States between display of lace curtains in domestic windows and middle-class respectability. It emerged primarily as part of the compound socio-cultural descriptor 'lace-curtain Irish', denoting those who had achieved economic success and social mobility, distinguishing them from working-class or 'shanty' counterparts.

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