How Bougie Lost Its Original Meaning
In contemporary American usage calling someone “bougie” often carries a tone of light admiration. It suggests a life marked by taste financial comfort and upward mobility. Although there may be an undercurrent of teasing the label typically signals aspiration rather than criticism.
Historically the meaning was different. Bougie comes from bourgeois the French term for the middle class. The bourgeoisie lived with a constant awareness of their position between working-class struggle and elite privilege. Being bourgeois did not mean being powerful or glamorous. It meant striving aspiring and often imitating the habits of a higher class without fully belonging to it.