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άστος

bourgeois /aˈstos/

adjectiveB2#2083 most common

Also: city dweller, urbanite, townsman

Example sentences

Ο πατέρας μου είναι αστός.
My father is a bourgeois man.
Η μητέρα της είναι αστή γυναίκα.
Her mother is a bourgeois woman.
Οι αστοί της πόλης ζούσαν σε μεγάλα σπίτια.
The bourgeois of the city lived in big houses.
Ο παππούς μου καταγόταν από αστική οικογένεια, αν και ο ίδιος δεν ένιωθε ποτέ αστός.
My grandfather came from a bourgeois family, though he himself never felt bourgeois.
Η επανάσταση του 1789 έφερε τους αστούς στην εξουσία, εις βάρος της παλιάς αριστοκρατίας.
The revolution of 1789 brought the bourgeois to power, at the expense of the old aristocracy.
Στα μυθιστορήματά του, ο συγγραφέας σατιρίζει τον τυπικό αστό, με τις υποκριτικές του αξίες και τη ρηχή του άνεση.
In his novels, the author satirizes the typical bourgeois figure, with his hypocritical values and shallow comfort.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeαστόςαστοί
Genitiveαστούαστών
Accusativeαστόαστούς
Vocativeαστέαστοί

Word family

άστυcity, town (archaic, literary)
αστικόςurban, civic, bourgeois
αστήbourgeois woman
αστυνομίαpoliceαστυνόμοςpolice officer, city magistrate

Etymology

The word comes from ancient Greek "άστυ" (ásty), meaning city or town, the built-up urban area as opposed to the surrounding countryside. Adding the suffix "-ός" turned this into a noun and adjective for someone belonging to the city. In modern use it tracks the same shift that gave French "bourgeois" its class meaning: a term for a town resident came to mean a person of the settled, propertied middle class.

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