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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

;

pl.

Proletaries

(#)

[ L.

proletarius

, fr.

proles

offspring. Cf.

(Rom. Antiq.)

A citizen of the lowest class, who served the state, not with property, but only by having children; hence, a common person.

Noun.

A common person. [Not used.]

proletary ‎(plural proletaries)

A proletarian.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.60:
  Of fifteen thousand proletaries slain in a battle, scarce fifteen are recorded in history, or one alone, the general perhaps, and after a while his and their names are likewise blotted out, the whole battle itself is forgotten.