proletariat
n.n. the class of people in a society who do not own property or have much money. They usually work for others to earn their living.
n. the social class of wage-earning workers who do not own the means of production. Often used in political or economic contexts to describe the working class.
The proletariat forms the largest part of the population.
Historical theories often describe the proletariat as the group that will eventually overthrow the ruling class.
The transition from a feudal society to a capitalist one saw the proletariat emerge as the primary force of industrial labor, fundamentally altering the social and economic landscape.
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”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to grow, nourish”)).