What do you call someone who has fought his way from a lower social class to a higher social class with his/her own efforts?

Question

Is there a single word (noun) that describes someone who was born into a lower social class family, but struggled along to a higher social class with his/her own efforts? Idioms are also welcome.

For example, I have a friend who is such a person. He has very uneducated parents who also had a lot of financial problems when he was a kid. He grew up with no toys, with clothes from his older siblings, without much of a social environment. His parents just attended primary school before they immigrated to Europe, so his parents also could not guide him and motivate him for education. He was, however, able to graduate from one of the best technical universities without any support of others, including his parents.

I wanted to tell him that he is a ______, but I did not know what word would fit to describe him.

Answer 1

Self-made man -- Wikipedia

A "self-made man" or "self-made woman" is a person who was born poor or otherwise disadvantaged, but who achieves economic or other success thanks to their own hard work and ingenuity rather than because of any inherited fortune, family connections, or other privileges.

Answer 2

You could also call this someone who has “pulled himself up by his bootstraps”:

Meaning: Improve your situation by your own efforts.

For example, James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922:

“There were others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps.”

Kunitz & Haycraft's British Authors of the 19th Century:

“A poet who lifted himself by his own boot-straps from an obscure versifier to the ranks of real poetry.”

Here, the expression is used to describe competency, but I think it can also be used in the sense of improving one's social lot.

Source: phrases.org.uk

Answer 3

The Romans called this kind of person a Novus homo, literally "new man", when referring to those who achieved Patrician status without inheriting it.

: new man : man newly ennobled : arriviste
_M-W

Answer 4

In the US, you may call him a Horatio Alger

Horatio Alger
of or characteristic of the heroes in the novels of Horatio Alger, who begin life in poverty and achieve success and wealth through honesty, hard work, and virtuous behavior:

Dictionary.com

Answer 5

The situation is also informally called rags to riches -- Wikipedia

So, the friend is a rags-to-riches person, or, he went from rags to riches (if he becomes really rich, that is)..

Richness doesn't always have to be about money. Rich in skills, social status, friends, knowledge, etc. can apply.

Rags to riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, and in some cases from absolute obscurity to heights of fame—sometimes instantly. This is a common archetype in literature and popular culture (for example, the writings of Horatio Alger, Jr.).

Not necessarily from winning lotteries or getting inheritance. Wikipedia lists a lot of names of famous people who faced many hardships and poverty in their path to success. They didn't win lotteries. It was their hard work and determination, and some good luck.

Answer 6

Although you asked for a single word so this does not fit but an expression commonly used for this is

climb the social ladder

He climbed the social ladder well

TheFreeDictionary

PhraseMix

You will find this expression being used in literature as well. Here is one random example

Admiral Barceló was one of those glory-covered heroes who became rich and climbed up the social ladder without coming from a family of hidalgos.

Source: Google Books; José Raúl Capablanca: A Chess Biography

I think many of the suggestions on this post do portray a situation where someone became rich after hard work but do not necessarily express the social element explicitly and this term is more suitable.

Answer 7

In the not necessarily virtuous view of social status, it could be social climber (or even suckhole).

Answer 8

The word parvenu could work, although it's considered slightly insulting.

one that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it

For a more complimentary version, try social-climber or upstart[n].

one who attempts to gain a higher social position or acceptance in fashionable society

one that has risen suddenly (as from a low position to wealth or power)

EDIT: As Mike Scott mentioned, upstart actually has negative connotations , and I would say social-climber does as well unless used carefully. Be cautious of these words and the context. They are probably not suitable to the OP's case, even if they do describe the activity mentioned.

Answer 9

I wanted to tell him that he is an example of self-edification.

The noun edification is extremely formal but I think it befits the situation described by the OP. English Oxford Dictionaries define it as: The moral or intellectual instruction or improvement of someone.

The following is a snippet from The New Yorker, May 18, 2017

This would become a recurring theme for Cornell, who wrote often of his own self-edification and of trying to be a better man. Of course, being better is hard.

Answer 10

If a military analogy would be appropriate, you could compare him to any of the small number of military officers who have arisen from private to General. Note that the U.S. Military calls such individuals mustangs

Here are a few well known individuals who have achieved this distinction:

• Michel Ney - "Bravest of the Brave", Marshal of the Empire, and author of a well regarded textbook on military tactics;

• Jean Lannes - also a Marshal of the Empire, Napoleon remarked on his death: "found as a pygmy, he left us as a giant";

• Jean-de-Dieu Soult - Future Marshal General of France, one of only six appointed in France's history.

• Walter Krueger - commander of the Sixth United States Army during World War Two.

• Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet, Field Marshall and Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1916 to 1918.

• "Johnny Shiloh", John Lincoln Clem, who retired as Brigadier General after enrolling at 12 as a drummer boy in the 22nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry.

Answer 11

You could call your friend Transcendent

To be transcendent:

To be transcendent is to be One that surpasses expectations.

Transcending:

Transcending is the act of overcoming or surpassing all the obstacles or barriers both physical and metaphysical that can prevent one from successfully reaching a destination that is thought to be unreachable either physical or metaphysical.

To transcend:

To transcend is to reach a place not thought to be reachable by others in a similar position, including social, economic, moral, physical, and metaphysical

Since your friend was capable of facing obstacles and barriers that are thought to be impassible by his kind (kind refers to social class and upbringing).

Your friend would have been lifted by the bootstraps as he "climbed the social ladder" to become a "successful" "achiever". resembling a rags to riches story deserving of the title self-made man, as the odds were against him and it was of his own hard work and ingenuity that he obtained the self edification of becoming a Novus homo. Much like those compared to the heroes of an Horatio Alger novel a name reserved only for those capable of "Transcending" the constructs of their world on the way to becoming transcendent and surpassing the limits placed upon them throughout life. The act of Transcendency.

Answer 12

New Money or "Nouveau Riche"

"Nouveau riche" (French: 'new rich' [nuvo ʁiʃ]) is a term, usually derogatory, to describe those whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. The equivalent English term is the "new rich" or "new money" (in contrast with "old money"/"vieux riche").1 Sociologically, "nouveau riche" refers to the man or woman who previously had belonged to a lower social class and economic stratum (rank) within that class; and that the new money, which constitutes his or her wealth, allowed upward social mobility and provided the means for conspicuous consumption, the buying of goods and services that signal membership in an upper class. As a pejorative term, "nouveau riche" effects distinctions of type, the given stratum within a social class; hence, among the rich people of a social class, "nouveau riche" describes the vulgarity and ostentation of the new-rich man and woman who lack the worldly experience and the system of values of old money, of inherited wealth, such as the patriciate, the nobility and the gentry.

"Parvenu"

A parvenu is a person who is a relative newcomer to a socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb parvenir (to reach, to arrive, to manage to do something).

Answer 13

In one word for your sentence you could call them an "Achiever". It is succinct and would be understood to mean the individual has achieved great things. It would not betray the starting point but would imply the results. Using "high achiever" would be redundant since it would not be notable otherwise, just as "quality" is often used to describe things as high quality without the extra word.

Answer 14

I think the word 'successful' is sufficient.

One only needs to achieve success - in whatever one does - to achieve a reputation among one's fellows, I find.

As the Proverb says, 'Seest thou a man diligent in his business ? He shall stand before kings.' Proverbs 22:29.