proletariat

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from French prolétariat, from prolétaire + -at, from Latin proletārius, from prōlēt- (“offspring”) + -ārius, from stem of prōlēs, from pro- + *olēs (“growth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to grow, nourish”). By surface analysis, Latin prōlēt- + -ary + -at.

1. The lowest class of society; also, the lower classes of society generally; the masses.
2. 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.”

3. The lowest class of citizens, who had no property and few rights, and were regarded as contributing only their offspring to the state.