Etymology

épater le bourgeois

Today it means: To scandalize, provoke the middle class. Full definition →

French épater le bourgeois
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromépater le bourgeois“amaze the bourgeois”
  2. English todayépater le bourgeois

Borrowed from French épater le bourgeois (“amaze the bourgeois”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.