Definition of "parvenu" [par•ve•nu]

• A person who has suddenly risen to a higher social and economic class and has not yet gained social acceptance by others in that class. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The defense that they are merely copying the American parvenu is no justification."
• "Mlle. de Montijo, used the very word "parvenu" in speaking of himself and of his family."
• "None was touched with that feigned agony which had too often deceived the public hope; and distance nowhere prevented the weight of the dreaded 'parvenu' from being felt."