Meanings
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1
noun
Wage earners collectively; people who own no capital and depend on their labour for survival; the working class, especially when seen as engaged in a class struggle with the bourgeoisie (“the capital-owning class”).
Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie to-day, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.
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2
noun
a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
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3
noun
The lowest class of society; also, the lower classes of society generally; the masses.
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4
noun
The lowest class of citizens, who had no property and few rights, and were regarded as contributing only their offspring to the state.
Thesaurus
Etymology
From French prolétariat (“proletariats as a class; state of being a proletariat”), from Latin prōlētārius (“belonging to the lowest class of citizens, whose only contribution to the state was their offspring; member of this class”) + French -at (suffix denoting actions or the results of actions). Prōlētārius is derived from prōlēs (“offspring, posterity”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, or forming nouns denoting agents of use from other nouns); prōlēs is from pro- (prefix meaning ‘bringing forth or into being; bringing into the open’) + *olēs (a variant of *oleō (“to grow”), ul...