Bill Bartlet wrote:
Assuming that "petty bourgeoisie" is just a miss-spelling of the French "petit bourgeoisie..."
This assumption is incorrect. It is not a misspelling, but an Anglicization of the French term (as paper mache is an Anglicization of "papier mache"), with an old Anglo-Marxist pedigree, as I imagine the word "petty" is itself an older Anglicization of "petit". it is also incorrect that they mean different things. They both mean "small".
Jim Creegan