proletariat
[proh-li-tair-ee-uh t]
- the class of wage earners, especially those who earn their living by manual labor or who are dependent for support on daily or casual employment; the working class.
- (in Marxist theory) the class of workers, especially industrial wage earners, who do not possess capital or property and must sell their labor to survive.
- the lowest or poorest class of people, possessing no property, especially in ancient Rome.
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Origin of proletariat
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for proletariat
Contemporary Examples
At the height of the Soviet Union, the proletariat universally understood everything their government said was a work of fiction.
Ultimately, though, what saved the Okies was not proletariat revolution but another world war.
In a post on his blog, Sprouse claims that he has become a member of the proletariat to feed his video game addiction.
While Bolshevism was a dictatorship of the proletariat, Nazism was a dictatorship with a voting consensus behind it.
Many Socialist Jews were anti-Zionist because they believed the proletariat should unite across religious and ethnic lines.
Historical Examples
First of all it compels the proletariat to live in the most disgusting promiscuity.
The Sexual QuestionAugust Forel
I thought the proletariat would have won, and you say it is all different.
They will exhaust themselves struggling against their proletariat.
Under Western EyesJoseph Conrad
Am I going to motor down to hear the protests of the proletariat to-night?
An American SuffragetteIsaac N. Stevens
This is a distinct phase of the struggle of the proletariat everywhere.
SocialismJohn Spargo
proletariat
- all wage-earners collectively
- the lower or working class
- (in Marxist theory) the class of wage-earners, esp industrial workers, in a capitalist society, whose only possession of significant material value is their labour
- (in ancient Rome) the lowest class of citizens, who had no property
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Word Origin
C19: via French from Latin prōlētārius proletarian
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for proletariat
n.
also proletariate, "the lowest class," 1853, from French prolétariat, from Latin proletarius (see proletarian). In political economics, "indigent wage-earners," from 1856. Leninist phrase dictatorship of the proletariat attested from 1918.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
proletariat
[(proh-luh-tair-ee-uht)]
In Marxism, the industrial working class, people without property.
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proletariat
[(proh-luh-tair-ee-uht)]
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.