lumpenproletariat
/ˌlʌmpənprəʊlɪˈtɛːrɪət
/noun [treated as singular or plural]
(Especially in Marxist terminology) the unorganized and unpolitical lower orders of society who are not interested in revolutionary advancement.This wallows in the dirt, squalor, drunkenness and mechanical, dehumanised sexuality of those who live on the margins of society, where the artistic petty bourgeois merges with the lumpenproletariat....
- The multigeneration denizens of public housing can readily be compared to Karl Marx's lumpenproletariat.
- The bloody woman can't tell the lumpenproletariat from the skilled working class.
Origin
1920s: from German (a term originally used by Karl Marx), from Lumpen 'rag, rogue' + proletariat.