The process of becoming bourgeois or middle-class, or the adoption of middle-class values and lifestyle.
From French 'embourgeoisement,' derived from 'bourgeois' (middle-class person), which comes from 'bourg' (town or borough), from Old French and Germanic roots. The prefix 'em-' means to cause to become.
Sociologists use this term to describe how working-class communities change when they gain wealth and move to suburbs—it's the transformation that sparked movements like punk rock as a reaction against becoming 'too bourgeois'!
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