petit bourgeois

A slightly snobby way to describe someone who's a member of the lower middle class, particularly if they run a small business, is petit bourgeois.

Referring to people as petit bourgeois is an insult — it implies that you think they're overly focused on money, and perhaps that you find them closed off to new ideas. The philosopher Karl Marx is often credited with coining this phrase, although experts note that Charlotte Brontë was the first to use it in print, in 1832. The class of petit bourgeois people is often described as yearning after the money and power of the higher economic class.

Definitions of petit bourgeois

1. noun

   lower middle class (shopkeepers and clerical staff etc.)
   synonyms: petite bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie

   type of:

   bourgeoisie, middle class

   the social class between the lower and upper classes
2. noun

   a member of the lower middle class
   type of:

   bourgeois, burgher

   a member of the middle class