It’s time to get over the word “Bougie”
Bougie is an old French word and has a lot of meanings depending on the way you use it, but most people use it to describe someone who tends to show off by putting on fancy clothes just so they can look better than everyone else or walk around with a sense of pride. The person who shows off by using fancy clothing and showing off is called bougie.
In the African American culture, the meaning of bougie is a little different. The African American culture uses the word bougie to refer to the high-class people that do not like to associate with certain types of people. The people that are considered bougie are the ones that could care less about you as a person and only care about you if you can serve them some type of purpose.
The people who are considered to be bougie in the African American culture, might be the ones who give off an attitude or pretend to be better than other people because they have money or live in a better part of town. These bougie individuals are the ones who look down on lower-class people and feel as if they are better than all the other people that surround them. The bougie people tend to show off to the other people in their surrounding and usually want to be in the center of attention. These are the things that make someone a bougie person in the African American culture.
How did people start using the word Bougie?
The word Bougie has a lot of possible origins, but most people believe that it originates from the French word Bougete which means to dress up. That is the most common origin for the word Bougie, Other possible origins include how the word was formed, in the French language, with a common french phrase “Bu jeune fille bonne”.
Another possible explanation could be that back in the olden times some poor people had very poor clothing, and they would wear colored cloths as to make themselves look better.
But there are people who believe that it might have come from the Greek word Bougos which means a person who is skinny and vain. This isn’t the most popular origin for the word Bougie, but it is not uncommon to come across people that believe in this origin.
Why would people use this word?
The word Bougie is used to describe the people that tend to show off by dressing up in clothing just so they can look better than everyone else or because that is what they are comfortable doing. There are different types of Bougies depending on where you live, but most people tend to use it as a negative word. The African American culture uses the word bougie from time to time to refer to the high-class individuals who do not associate with lower-class people. The people who are considered to be bougies are the ones that could care less about you as a person and only care about you if you can serve them some type of purpose.
Is Bougie a nagetive word?
Most people would not use the word Bougie if they were not a bougie person, but there are some people who will use the word Bougie loosely to describe themselves as a whole. At times it could be used in a sarcastic way, but most of the time it is used to describe someone you do not really like. It is very hard to tell if this type of person is being serious or if they are just being sarcastic.
It is hard to explain the use of Bougie in a short amount of time, but hopefully these definitions will help you understand it a little better. In the African American culture it is commonly used as a negative word to describe someone who does not associate with lower class people.
Conclusion
In the end, it is just a word, no more than that. But I hope that after reading about its history you will stop and think before you use it and know that it is not just a word to describe something or someone as being “expensive” but instead it reflects the attitude of an individual or what they have been taught and raised to believe in their own community.
Please share your comments below and tell me what you think about using the word Bougie in our African American culture. Let’s talk about it!
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