lumpen 
lumpen
Definition
lum·pen (lo̵om′pən; 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
- ‹ lumped amplification
- ‹ lumpectomy
- ‹ lump-sum payment
- ‹ lump sum
- ‹ lump
- ‹ lummox
- ‹ luminous flux
- ‹ luminous energy
- ‹ luminous
- ‹ luminosity
Print this Page
Suggestion Box
Send to Friend
