lumpenproletariat

[luhm-puhn-proh-li-tair-ee-uht]

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. the lowest level of the proletariat comprising unskilled workers, vagrants, and criminals and characterized by a lack of class identification and solidarity.

lumpenproletariat

/ ˌlʌmpənˌprəʊlɪˈtɛərɪət /

noun

1. (esp in Marxist theory) the amorphous urban social group below the proletariat, consisting of criminals, tramps, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of lumpenproletariat¹

1920–25; < German (Marx, 1850), equivalent to Lumpen rag or Lumpen-, combining form of Lump ragamuffin + Proletariat proletariat

Word History and Origins

Origin of lumpenproletariat¹

German, literally: ragged proletariat

Example Sentences

Brown’s older brothers became part of the lumpenproletariat until the law caught up with them.

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Other people around me thought of the region’s lumpenproletariat as lazy and undisciplined, the sort that warranted whatever came their way.

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“You know, I just saw ‘The Hairy Ape’ by Eugene O’Neill, and the line that keeps recurring in this lumpenproletariat protagonist in the play is ‘I don’t belong,’ ” he says.

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“For the many, not the few”? One can agree with the principle, while strongly doubting that most individual voters want to see themselves as part of a seething, undifferentiated mass, “the many”, or the lumpenproletariat.

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It couldn’t last, and it didn’t: The grand bargain the Republican elite thought it had struck with the loonier fringes of the lumpenproletariat came undone in spectacular fashion in 2016.

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