This looks like it ticks all your boxes

It’s the new emergency number

Are they salty?

Ha. Spießer comes directly from Spießbürger, which in medieval times meant a free citizen of a city who had to help in defense and lawkeeping. They were often organised in guilds and used spears (“Spieße”).

So bourgeois is not far off, but doesn’t catch all the nuance…

That is not really the currently used definition anymore. Since the 20th century it means more akin to a square or stiff. Basically another word for ‘Spießer’.

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