proletariat

Etymology

It is borrowed from French prolétariat (“condition of being proletarian; the proletarian class”),^[2][3][4][5] recorded in French from 1832,^[2] formed from Latin prōlētārius (“a citizen of the lowest class”) and the suffix -at.^[2][6][7] The Roman citizen of that class owned little or no property and was thought to serve the state only by having children, so the word comes from prōlēs (“offspring”).^[4][3][8][7] The American Heritage Dictionary traces prōlēs to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *al- (“to grow, nourish”),^[4] which Ayto gives as a base meaning "nourish", the source also of adolescent and alimony.^[8] The OED compares German Proletariat, recorded in Marx in 1844.^[2] The English form proletary had been used in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Roman sense,^[3] and proletarian is older than proletariat.^[2][3] In the 19th century the word was often written proletariate.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wage earners collectively, especially those without capital who live by their daily labour: 1847, in the Daguerreotype.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to 1853, in the sense "the lowest and poorest class".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED records the sense "the lowest class of society, the poor" from 1853, in the Times,^[2] and the Roman sense, the lowest class of citizens, from 1861.^[2] Etymonline dates the economic sense, wage workers dependent on daily or casual work, to 1856,^[3] and the Leninist phrase dictatorship of the proletariat to 1918.^[3] The Shorter Oxford notes that in the sense "the lowest class of any community" the word was usually derogatory.^[9] The short form prole goes back to the late 19th century, first recorded in George Bernard Shaw, and was established by George Orwell in the 1930s.^[8]

Timeline

• 1847 – wage earners collectively; the working classes.^[2][6]
• 1853 – the lowest class in society, the poor.^[2][3]
• 1856 – in political economy, workers dependent on daily or casual wages.^[3]
• 1861 – the lowest class of citizens in ancient Rome.^[2]
• 1918 – dictatorship of the proletariat.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wage earners as a group, especially industrial workers who own no capital and live by selling their labour; the working class.^[10][6][2]
2. In Marxist theory, the class of wage earners in a capitalist society, whose only valuable possession is their labour: the dictatorship of the proletariat.^[10][3]
3. The lowest social or economic class of a community.^[6][10][9]
4. In ancient Rome, the lowest class of citizens, who owned little or no property.^[6][10][2]

Word family

• prole

Related words

• proletarian
• proletarianise
• proletarianize
• proletarianism
• proletarize
• proletary
• prolicide
• prolific

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins