proletarian
Americanadjective
-
pertaining or belonging to the proletariat.
-
(in ancient Rome) belonging to the lowest or poorest class of the people.
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of proletarian
Explanation
Working class, blue collar, plebeian and certainly not aristocratic — that's what the adjective proletarian means. Proletarian has roots in the Latin word proles, which means "offspring." That's because back in ancient Rome, a proletarian was a member of the proletariat, the class of society that had no wealth and didn't own property. The only thing these proletarians had to offer was their hard work and their children. Today's proletarians are a little better off; they're considered the working class and just might have better benefits through their unions than some white-collar workers out there.
Vocabulary lists containing proletarian
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Power Suffix: -arian
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Red is one of those colors that’s both aspirational and proletarian at the same time.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2024
Their devotion to Slowick meanwhile, hovers between that of a proletarian army in revolt against its oppressors and the legions of the undead commanded by figures of aristocratic despotism such as Dracula.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2022
Both he and Mr. Fetterman, who touted his years as mayor of a hard-hit steel town outside Pittsburgh, adopted the hooded sweatshirt as a proletarian uniform.
From New York Times ● Nov. 20, 2022
The social critic Mike Davis once called these “stealth houses” that hide their “luxurious qualities with proletarian or gangster facades.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2022
Aunt Xi-wen tried to smile to show her support of the proletarian revolutionary young guards, but the smile froze before it was fully formed.
From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
