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.
Most of the things on the 112-item list cost less than $100 and fulfill a proletarian need instead of gesturing toward patrician signaling.
From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2023
Glenn Fitzgerald, as the Brusteins’ upstairs neighbor, a gay playwright; Julian De Niro, as a Black proletarian who asks Gloria to marry him; and Grotelueschen are all blessed with meaty, well-handled supporting roles.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 27, 2023
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
They identified with the agrarian and proletarian revolutions and mingled with European artists who fled to Mexico from both world wars.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
I could drift along like this, in some dreary proletarian idyll, except for two things.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
Definitions 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.
