1. Ŕ Rome, basse couche sociale dispensée d'impôt dont on attendait qu'elle produise des enfants pour fournir les armées romaines.
2. Moderne : personne qui travaille de ses mains et dont les revenus sont modestes. Prolétaires de tous les pays, unissez-vous !
ETYM French.
The working class; the body of proletarians.
Working classes.
In Marxist theory, those classes in society that possess no property, and therefore depend on the sale of their labor or expertise (as opposed to the capitalists or bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, and the petty bourgeoisie, or working small-property owners). They are usually divided into the industrial, agricultural, and intellectual proletariat.
The term is derived from Latin “proletarii”, “the class possessing no property”, whose contribution to the state was considered to be their offspring, “proles”.