The term bourgeois originated in medieval France, where it denoted an inhabitant of a walled town. Its overtones became important in the 18th century, when the middle class of professionals, manufacturers, and their literary and political allies began to demand an influence in politics consistent with their economic status. Marx was one of many thinkers who treated the French Revolution as a revolution of the bourgeois.
Source: Britannica
I was in an art gallery and so confused about the use of the term with respect to art contemporary to the French Revolution. So I looked it up lol
“Citizen” (from “city”) has a similar origin, and used to refer to those living in a city in a way recognized by the city authorities, i.e. the burghers (bourgeois). In the early modern period, there was a caste system which included citizens, peasants, clergy and nobility, which little possibility for social mobility between castes. Eventually, the castes gradually disappeared and fused together in just a single “citizens” caste, albeit today with a new caste of “non-citizens.”