Etymology

proletariat

pro·le·ta·ri·at
P3R1O1L1E1T1A1R1I1A1T1

Today it means: The lowest class of society; also, the lower classes of society generally; the masses. Full definition →

French prolétariat ← Latin proletārius ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₂el-“to grow, nourish”
  2. Latin · derived fromproletārius
  3. French · borrowed fromprolétariat
  4. English todayproletariat

Borrowed from French prolétariat, from prolétaire + -at, from Latin proletārius, from prōlēt- (“offspring”) + -ārius, from stem of prōlēs, from pro- + *olēs (“growth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to grow, nourish”). By surface analysis, Latin prōlēt- + -ary + -at.

Words from the same roots

Latinproletārius all →

proletarianproletaireproletary

Proto-Indo-European*h₂el- all →

allallegoryalkinallegorizeall hailcisalpineelne

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.