the Proletarian

[Tower of Bebel]

Hey, i wonder who used the word 'proletair' (french), proletarian, 'proletarier' (german) first, and where was it used for the first time to discribe the masses? I know it comes from "proles" which is latin for "offspring"... which discribes the characteristics of the new poor of the 18th and 19th century.

[Janus]

I think the word originated from Roman times in which the proletariat were the poor, landless freemen who were the lowest ranked Roman citizens.

[Vargha Poralli]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21, 2007 01:55 am
I think the word originated from Roman times in which the proletariat were the poor, landless freemen who were the lowest ranked Roman citizens.
Certainly wrong. Those people were called Plebians but are not lowest ranking people who are slaves and non citizens.

[manic expression]

The term originated in the Roman Republic. IIRC, it's Latin.

g.ram is right, there were two classes in the early Roman Republic, plebians and patricians, with the patricians being priveleged and plebians being the lower classes (we still use the terms today). However, after the Punic Wars, many citizens were forced to sell their land to wealthy landowners and move into the cities. These people became the proletariat, the urban poor.

I'm not sure who the first to apply the term to modern industrialization was.

[Janus]

Certainly wrong. Those people were called Plebians but are not lowest ranking people who are slaves and non citizens.
The Romans didn't use proletariat but they did use pleibean to describe said class. Also, I stated that pleibeans are the lowest ranking citizens not people.

[Hiero]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25, 2007 11:08 am

Certainly wrong. Those people were called Plebians but are not lowest ranking people who are slaves and non citizens.
The Romans didn't use proletariat but they did use pleibean to describe said class. Also, I stated that pleibeans are the lowest ranking citizens not people.
Alot of people make the common mistake of putting the Plebians as the underclass. The difference between Plebian and Patrician was that Patricians claimed linage to the founders of Rome. The Plebians ranged from different wealth groups, and after 287 bc at least one counsul had to be Plebian. From my understanding I see the Patrician as being composed of groups of tight nit families which can explain their prominance in politics at certain points of time. If you read any of the old historians, Tacitis and Suetonius occasionaly you find rich Plebians changed the course of Roman history. There should not be described as landless freemen.