proletariat

Meaning

Noun

• The lowest class of society; also, the lower classes of society generally; the masses.
• Wage earners collectively, excluding salaried workers; 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 lowest class of citizens, who had no property and few rights, and were regarded as contributing only their offspring to the state.

Origin

• + *olēs (a variant of *oleō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-).