Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Nearby Entries
lumpen - 2 dictionary results

lum⋅pen

  [luhm-puhn]
Use lumpen in a Sentence
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to disfranchised and uprooted individuals or groups, esp. those who have lost status: the lumpen bourgeoisie.
–noun
2. a lumpen individual or group.
Origin:
1945–50; extracted from lumpenproletariat
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To lumpen
lum·pen   (lŭm'pən, lŏŏm'-)   
adj.  
  1. Of or relating to dispossessed, often displaced people who have been cut off from the socioeconomic class with which they would ordinarily be identified: lumpen intellectuals unable to find work in their fields.
  2. Of or relating to the lumpenproletariat.
  3. Vulgar or common; plebeian: "Popular novelists and their mass readership remain a despised lumpen minority" (Leslie Fiedler).
n.  
  1. (used with a pl. verb) The lumpenproletariat.
  2. (used with a sing. verb) A member of the lumpenproletariat.

[From German Lumpenproletariat, the lowest section of the proletariat; see lumpenproletariat.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see lumpen on Thesaurus | Reference