bobo – Mot du jour

yuppie with an attitude – French expression

What does ” bobo ” mean? How do you say ‘ yuppie with an attitude ’ in French? How is it pronounced? How is it used in a French sentence? Listen to Anne, a French native say it at FrenchHour.com.

The term bobo is short for bourgeois-bohème. The two words bourgeois and bohème both start with BO: bourgeois-bohème = bobo. bourgeois-bohème is both a noun and an adjective. Bourgeois means middle-class and bohème is a person with quite a lot of financial means and a non-conventional lifestyle, generally with liberal, left-wing political views, often with an attitude, a Parisian attitude. It’s slightly derogatory. The famous singer Renaud has a whole - self-deprecating - song about Les bobos. Click below to hear the song.

So, un or une bobo is somebody who is well-to-do, that’s the bourgeois part, but with a non-conformist lifestyle, that’s the bohême part. I’m translating by ‘yuppie with an attitude’. That’s the closest I come to a translation, and I welcome your suggestions below. Merci !

« Il dit qu’il a [n’a] pas de fric, mais t’as vu où il a réservé ? Au Grand Hôtel - 5 étoiles. C’est un bobo, ce mec. »
- “He says he doesn’t have any dough, but did you see where he reserved a room? At the Grand Hotel - 5 stars. This guy’s a true yuppie with an attitude. “