proletary

[proh-li-ter-ee]

adjective

plural

proletaries 

1. proletarian.

Word History and Origins

Origin of proletary¹

1570–80; < Latin prōlētārius belonging to the lowest class of Roman citizens, i.e., those who contributed to the state only through their offspring, equivalent to prōlēt- (akin to prōlēs offspring; pro- pro- ¹ + -olēs ( adult )) + -ārius -ary

Example Sentences

Another had seen the waters carry away his pig or his cow, treasures of the proletary of the fields; again, there were those who had lost the only bed upon which the family slept; in fact, almost all had to deplore the sand-banks strewn over the little field from which they lived and paid the rent of the farm.

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Do not forget that you have a proletary for a father.

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But to live with his wife like a proletary, in St. Petersburg, among her brilliant relations and friends, he could not bring himself to do.

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England has a proletary population, the lowest in Europe; we have three million of proletaries lower than the "pauper laborers" of England, which the whig protectionists hold up to us in terror.

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Whether proletary or not, there was nothing about him to offend the taste of the best-born of ladies.

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