lumpen Hear it!

lumpen Definition

lum·pen (lo̵ompən; E lum-)

adjective

designating or of persons or groups regarded as belonging to a low or contemptible segment of their class or kind because of their unproductiveness, shiftlessness, alienation, degeneration, etc.

Etymology: shortened < lumpenproletariat < Ger, lowest level of the proletariat: coined (1850) by Karl Marx < lumpen-, trashy (< lump, scoundrel, ragamuffin, lit., rag < MHG lumpe: see limp) + proletariat, proletariat

noun pl. lum·pen

such a person or group

lumpen Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • proletariat: They aren't lumpen proletariat or working class or middle class or bourgeois.
  • element: Here we have backward and ignorant lumpen elements frenziedly taking their cue from the government's own 'war on terror ' .
  • mass: Stop telling me that I should couch my criticism in terms that won't offend or alienate the lumpen mass.
  • prole: Instead the lumpen proles decided to play toward the South stand for the first half.
  • form: The larvae polyp its lumpen form until It disappears under its new guise.

Browse dictionary entries near lumpen

  1. lumped amplification
  2. lumpectomy
  3. lump-sum payment
  4. lump sum
  5. lump
  6. lummox
  7. luminous flux
  8. luminous energy
  9. luminous
  10. luminosity
  1. lumper
  2. lumpfish
  3. lumpish
  4. lumpy
  5. lumpy jaw
  6. Lunéville
  7. Luna
  8. luna moth
  9. lunacy
  10. lunar