arriviste

/ˈɑriˌvist/

Other forms: arrivistes

An arriviste is someone who's moved up in the world quickly and ends up being resented. You might visit your hometown and feel like it's full of arrivistes who can pay exorbitant prices for enormous houses.

When someone suddenly earns a whole lot more money than they did before, they find themselves in a new economic class. If the people who have belonged to this group for a long time (maybe they inherited their wealth from their grandparents, for example) are resentful of this person and their "new money," they might use the word arriviste. An arriviste is newly arrived in this world — as you can see in the French root, arriver, "to arrive."

Definitions of arriviste

1. noun

   a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class
   synonyms: nouveau-riche, parvenu, upstart

   types:

   climber, social climber

   someone seeking social prominence by obsequious behavior

   junior

   term of address for a disrespectful and annoying male

   lion-hunter

   someone who tries to attract social lions as guests

   type of:

   disagreeable person, unpleasant person

   a person who is not pleasant or agreeable