• arriviste •
Pronunciation: æ-ri-vist • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Parvenu, upstart, someone who has "arrived" at a position of great power and position but without general acceptance. 2. Social climber, go-getter, poseur, wannabe.
Notes: Arriviste entered English only around the turn of the 20th century, so recent it hasn't lost its final French E or accent on the final syllable. The qualitative noun from this word, arrivisme, has already begun its adaptation to English by sometimes losing the final E, arrivism, but it is still pronounced like arrivisme.
In Play: This word is slightly pejorative: "The great Gatsby tried to hide his status as an arriviste but old money still avoided his parties." But not always: "Donald Trump is a political arriviste whose status has not affected his popularity among his electoral base."
Word History: English borrowed its arrive from French arriver back in the 13th century, way before arriviste was even in French. French inherited its word from Vulgar (street) Latin arripare "to reach shore", made from the Latin phrase ad ripam "up to the shore", from ad "(up) to" + ripa "shore, bank". Latin created ripa by adding a P to PIE rei- "to tear, cut", which also underlies English rift and Norwegian rift "crack, tear". With other suffixes we find Sanskrit lisati "rip off", Lithuanian riekti "to slice", English reap and rip (from rei-b-), German reißen "to rip", and Russian reka "river". (Now let's all thank Lew Jury, grandmaster of word suggestions, for sharing this find of a Good Word with us.)
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