Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A proletarian: "If there is hope . . . it lies in the proles” ( George Orwell).
Wiktionary
- n. informal A member of the proletariat
- n. informal A pleb (ordinary person).
WordNet 3.0
- n. a member of the working class (not necessarily employed)
Etymologies
- From proletariat ("working class") by shortening (Wiktionary)
Examples
“For in Reich's letter as in his book, the choices we face are simplified to "consumer deals" or "citizen values"; and his critics (me, on this occasion) are dismissed as "denigrators" of economic growth, enemies of capitalist globalization who pave the way for nativism: in short, prole-worshipping nostalgics.”
“Beer was the only drink you could get in prole pubs.”
“Once all remaining dignity has been stripped clean away, said prole is suddenly given pounds 2,000 and commanded to buy a new wardrobe, with two provisos – 1) they must follow a set of fashion "rules" handed down by Trinny and Susannah, and 2) their shopping expedition takes place on camera.”
The Guardian: Charlie Brooker's Screen burn: What Not To Wear
“I'm seriously considering a ban on the use of "prole" on this blog unless the term is used in a discussion of Orwell's 1984.”
“In Orwell's novel, the "prole" masses, which make up 85% of the population, do have access to porn.”
“- Is such insight as to why Orwell was drawn to place hope for humanity within 'prole'?”
“Anyway -- all the rest regarding the ostensible "prole" nature of solidly middle class Palin is basically bullshit.”
“prole', yet this priestly caste is obviously unable to agree on matters of interpretation, as seen by the number of schisms arising since the Church's foundation.”
“Well, that doesn’t make them immune to the petit bourgeois angst of being seen as the wrong kind of prole wrong kind because, of course, not being of the hoi poloi is so declassé these days.”
“I mean, you'd expect prole (PH) England to have words for different types of rain: drizzle, the har -- the fog, the mist that -- that drifts up the Lincolnshire coastline, etc., etc. So yes.”
A Back-Story to The Man Who Loved China A Coincidence Most Curious and Telling
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prole’.
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Words starting with PRO
I've noticed many, many words start with PRO and this is just a collection of them.
professional, pronunciation, Prolagus, probable, prog, proximity, profit, procrastincate, prom, pronoun, promise, proactive and 206 more...
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Nineteen Eighty-four
memory hole, newspeak, doublethink, room 101, doubleplus, ungood, thoughtcrime, thought police, ingsoc, big brother, fullwise, duckspeak and 19 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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zanshin's Words
gargoyle, ennui, paradigm, aardvark, verisimilitude, ghoti, tenacity, nescience, guillemet, squonk, maven, moxie and 210 more...
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lester
sargasso, monolithic, idioms, nascent, sonances, arrhythmic, pap, dilettantish, fuzztone, effete, morass, waxed and 92 more...
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billfence's Words
quotidian, flux, sawbuck, horsefeathers, chalcedony, harp, no, fox, tennis, badminton, flue, charm and 186 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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tomax's Words
legerdemain, yayo, extravasation, wont, faze, coxswain, concomitant, enclave, unguent, rhabdomyolysis, effluent, puerile and 432 more...
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Test-words
rarefy, occlude, bolt, lambaste, career, careen, largesse, enormity, neologism, quizzical, sibyl, euphony and 105 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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words I remember first encountering
fetlock, artefact, quandary, asyndeton, chiasmus, enjambement, vehemently, vituperative, decorum, sable, scansion, diapason and 75 more...
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Newspeak
Found in George Orwell's 1984
newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime, crimethink, ingsoc, goodthink, bellyfeel, prole, ungood, duckspeak, goodsex, ownlife and 6 more...
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My Faves
A list of words that I think are weird but like to incorporate into my daily vocabulary. Quirky words :)
discombobulated, irk, libation, mendacious, lothario, fossa ovalis, foramen ovale, livid, lividity, livor mortis, prole, spear-carrier and 2 more...
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malbeth's Words
randy, susurrus, synecdoche, prole, fledgling, majuscule, nosh, taboo, interregnum, tohubohu, ouroboros, zeugma and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for prole.
hernesheir Just don't call them the "comfortably numb" living in "blissful ignorance", and don't mention that "the unexamined life is not worth living"...or politics, or religion, or guns. I would suggest that anyone should read the wonderful and amusing book by Paul Fussel entitled Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. It will make you laugh and cringe, and as Wordies, write down a score or terms to add your lists and personal vocabularies. Jan 18, 2009
sionnach You could just refer to them as "the rich". Jan 18, 2009
seanahan Typically, yes. I can't think of any single syllable slang for bourgeois. Jan 18, 2009
super-topher Colloquial for proletariat? Jan 15, 2009