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proletariat, -ate|prəʊlɪˈtɛərɪət|
[ad. mod.F. prolétariat (prɔletarja), f. L. prōlētāri-us proletaire + F. -at, -ate1. Orig. and now usually spelt -at, as in Fr. The spelling with the Eng. -ate was common c 1858–1920.]
1. Anc. Hist. The lowest class of the community in ancient Rome, regarded as contributing nothing to the state but offspring. Also with reference to other ancient states.
α1861J. G. Sheppard Fall Rome i. 49 In the days of Marius, its old aristocratical distinctions were abandoned in the ranks, and the proletariat admitted upon terms of equality. 1871Farrar Witn. Hist. v. 189 Athens had her slaves, Sparta her helots, Rome her proletariat.
β1868‘Ouida’ Tricotrin I. 138 Rome—with her vast proletariate and her vast armies lulled the hungry cry. 1879Farrar St. Paul I. 558 It was from this city [Corinth] and amid its abandoned proletariate that the Apostle dictated his frightful sketch of Paganism.
2. In reference to modern society.
a. Applied to the lowest class of the community. Often with hostile connotation.
α1853Times 19 Nov. 8/5 We are encouraged to fling the boroughs into the hands of a poor, ignorant, and venal proletariat. 1878N. American Review CXXVII. 4 A discontented proletariat beneath. 1879H. George Progr. & Pov. vii. iv. (1881) 336 To swell the ranks of the proletariat who had nothing to sell but their votes.
β1865Maffei Brigand Life II. 185 [It] would produce..the wholesome effect..of destroying that savage proletariate. 1873L. Stephen Ess. Freethinking 113 When a Church loses its hold on the intellectual classes, it can no longer maintain its sway over the ‘proletariate’. 1881Miss Laffan in Macm. Mag. XLIV. 393 He had all the cant of the advanced school; never spoke of poor people save by the term ‘proletariate’.
fig.1861L. Stephen tr. Berlepsch's Alps vi. 47 The proletariat of vegetation, the common people of the creeping grasses, the aggregate of which forms the rich pasturage. 1881Nature 24 Feb. 387/1 First..was the Sparrow, the most impudent proletariat—I had almost said Social democrat, because the whole world today has that bad word in the mouth.
b. Pol. Econ. That class of the community which is dependent on daily labour for subsistence, and has no reserve or capital; the indigent wage-earners; sometimes extended to include all wage-earners; working men, the labouring classes. dictatorship of the proletariat: the Communist ideal of proletarian supremacy following the overthrow of capitalism and preceding the classless state.
α1856Geo. Eliot in Westm. Rev. X. 75 The Proletariat, or those who are dependent on daily wages. 1869Daily News 31 Aug., [The system] of Partnerships of Industry..may need for its development a more cultivated proletariat and a capitalist class less anxious to be rich. 1880Woolsey Communism & Soc. iv. §1. 127 The proletariat, as the agitators delighted to call the standing class of operatives: meaning by this Roman term..those who had only hands to work with and no laid-up capital. 1883Hyndman Socialism v, The growth of the powerful capitalist class on the one hand, and of the proletariat or hand-to-mouth wage-earners on the other. 1886tr. Marx's Manifesto of Communists 8 The small middle class, the artisans, merchants, mechanics, shopkeepers, and farmers, are all doomed to fall into the ranks of the Proletariat, because their small capital cannot compete with that of the millionaire, and..their skill is depreciated by new modes of production. Thus the Proletariat recruits from all classes of population. 1927H. Laski Let. 20 Nov. in Holmes—Laski Lett. (1953) II. 998 Did I tell you that I have traced the origins of the famous ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ to Babeuf? 1937E. St. V. Millay Conversation at Midnight ii. 69 The dictatorship of the proletariat, though not yet present and in this room, is a fact! 1941New Statesman 19 Apr. 407/1 Unluckily the proletariat are even more conservative in their food than the bourgeoisie. 1964P. G. Casanova in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 71 Mills..could not believe that Marx's view that the proletariat was the force of history could be applied to the United States of 1960. 1972W. Leonhard in C. D. Kernig Marxism, Communism & Western Society II. 429/2 The term ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ was probably coined in 1837 by Auguste Blanqui. Ibid. 434/1 After Stalin's death..a change again took place in the Soviet presentation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. 1976T. Eagleton Crit. & Ideology ii. 58 In nineteenth-century England..there were sound political reasons why the proletariat should be excluded from literacy, but sound religious reasons why it should not be.
β1858Brit. Q. Rev. LVI. 442 Who will make up his ‘proletariate’, or, in unambitious English, ‘labouring classes’. 1884Illustr. Lond. News 16 Feb. 150/2 That it is directed against the liberty of the proletariate. 1920M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism II. iii. vi. 120 O'Brien's was the policy of a relentless class war by a proletariate that was absolutely unable to convert its votes into political power.
3. attrib. or as adj.
1867G. Lushington in Quest. Reformed Parl. 42 Imagine an employer of labour..placed in the dock before a Proletariat Magistrate. 1868Blackw. Mag. Mar. 298 The French Revolution, by destroying the aristocratic character of the clergy, gave birth to a caste of proletariat priests. 1889Academy 29 June 441/1 Efforts of philanthropy at the improvement of the proletariate classes.
Hence proleˈtariatism, the principles and aims of a proletariat; cf. proletarianism.
1879Baring-Gould Germany II. 289 The future battle between property and proletariatism. |