/ˌnuːvɛl ˈpəʊvrə/, U.S. /ˌnuˌvɛl ˈpoʊvrə/;nouveau pauvren.adj.
/ˌnuːvəʊ ˈpəʊvrə/, U.S. /ˌnuˌvoʊ ˈpoʊvrə//ˌnuːvɛl ˈpəʊvrə/, U.S. /ˌnuˌvɛl ˈpoʊvrə/; A. n.
A person who has recently become poor. Also with the: such people as a class (with plural agreement). Frequently contrasted with nouveau riche n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > [noun] > poor person > recently poor person
nouveau pauvre1877
1877 Atlantic Monthly Dec. 654/2 When there were more nouveaux riches and fewer nouveaux pauvres than now.
1947 Economica 14 69 The savings of the ‘nouveau riche’ are greater than of the ‘ancien riche’, and the savings of the ‘nouveau pauvre’ less than of the ‘ancien pauvre’.
1963 A. Wilson Wild Garden 29 This is not, as my earlier satire on the nouveau-pauvre or the lumpen-bourgeoisie, an attack on false standards, but an attack on insufficient standards.
1975 Harpers & Queen May 101 Crisis for coiffeurs... Some of the nouvelles pauvres are clamouring for Brillo-pad mouse, the new colour and the new texture.
1992 Economist 10 Oct. 36/2 The nouveaux pauvres–the once-rich, now short of cash..had offered bank guarantees on their homes as security for Lloyds.
B. adj.
Of a person or group of people: recently impoverished.
ΚΠ
1965 Punch 27 Oct. 619/1 Maigret..is summoned to the home of a morally rotten, nouveau-pauvre family where a maid has died of arsenic poisoning.
1975 Country Life 13 Feb. 413/1 Nouveau-pauvre? Could you do with an extra bedroom?
1988 E. White Beautiful Room is Empty (1989) iv. 97 My stepmother had found for me a sweet girl from a nouveau pauvre family.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1877