I was looking into the words "proletariat" and "bourgeoisie"
Apparently the word proletariat has its origins in roman society. During the census citizens were counted and placed into a class based on their possessions. Those with more possessions had greater voting rights. At the top were the equestrians who owned armor, a horse (from whence the name), a weapon etc. The classes below had less and less until you got to the proletariat. This class had nothing but their own descendants. Their sole role was to produce offspring for the republic. And this is where these people got their class name. "Proles" means offspring, and so a "Proletarian" is one of the class who only owns their own offspring.
This class was later associated with the working class in the industrial age by Marx and other early communist figures. The term was co-opted because early communists saw a connection between those who did not own property in roman times and those doing menial labor for bread in early modern times.
Marx also coined a new term, lumpenproletariat. Lumpen meaning something like "rags" "rogue" or "ignorant" to describe socially undesirable elements of society (like thieves, prostitutes etc) who were deemed parasitic elements of society and not fit to join the dictatorship of the working class - both because of their disinterestedness in and supposed lack of class consciousness.
Bourgeois interestingly comes from an early german word "burgz" meaning city. The english word borough actually is derived from this same proto-germanic root. In the early stages of urbanization, the right to abode in a city was not something everyone was granted. The lucky "bourgeoisie" or "city dwellers" were simply those with right to live in a city - and thus escape menial labor in agricultural pursuits. This term later took on nuance in distinguishing not city dweller from rural person, but simply those who perform hard labor versus those who do not.
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Apparently the word proletariat has its origins in roman society. During the census citizens were counted and placed into a class based on their possessions. Those with more possessions had greater voting rights. At the top were the equestrians who owned armor, a horse (from whence the name), a weapon etc. The classes below had less and less until you got to the proletariat. This class had nothing but their own descendants. Their sole role was to produce offspring for the republic. And this is where these people got their class name. "Proles" means offspring, and so a "Proletarian" is one of the class who only owns their own offspring.
This class was later associated with the working class in the industrial age by Marx and other early communist figures. The term was co-opted because early communists saw a connection between those who did not own property in roman times and those doing menial labor for bread in early modern times.
Marx also coined a new term, lumpenproletariat. Lumpen meaning something like "rags" "rogue" or "ignorant" to describe socially undesirable elements of society (like thieves, prostitutes etc) who were deemed parasitic elements of society and not fit to join the dictatorship of the working class - both because of their disinterestedness in and supposed lack of class consciousness.
Bourgeois interestingly comes from an early german word "burgz" meaning city. The english word borough actually is derived from this same proto-germanic root. In the early stages of urbanization, the right to abode in a city was not something everyone was granted. The lucky "bourgeoisie" or "city dwellers" were simply those with right to live in a city - and thus escape menial labor in agricultural pursuits. This term later took on nuance in distinguishing not city dweller from rural person, but simply those who perform hard labor versus those who do not.
Anywho, I hope you enjoyed communism facts daily, like and subscribe
