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booboisie

booboisie (adj., n.) ("büb-"wä-'zE) is a blend of boob and bourgeoisie coined by the late great critic, writer, and radical thinker, H.L. Mencken (1880-1956). In the plural, Mencken used booboisie to describe the ignorant members of "Main Street America." The singular is also booboisie, which Mencken used to describe “a professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards.”

“No one in this world, so far as I know ... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of booboisie.”

by true dough January 23, 2007

54👍 18👎


Boobris

Boobris: dopey arrogance, reminiscent of H.L. Mencken’s booboisie.
Boobris was coined by Matthew Scully, a former speech writer for president Goerge W. Bush.

"The hubris of it is staggering, but they hardly seem serious enough souls to deserve such a weighty word, guilty at worst of a dopey arrogance we might call boobris."
--Matthew Scully, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy (New York: St. Martin's, 2002).

by true dough January 23, 2007

7👍 6👎