大英百科全书里是怎么解释无产阶级的？

Proletariat-The proletariat (from Latin proles, "offspring") is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons; the term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it as a sociological term to refer to the working class.

无产阶级，出自于拉丁语proletarius，其拉丁文本字原是指古罗马最低下层的社会阶段，字源由Proles (子嗣)一字所衍生，意味该阶层的唯一贡献是延续香火并供应人丁，带有轻蔑之意。直至19世纪，马克思以此字形容没有资本工具的工人阶级，此字才正式走入社会及经理学说。在中文，Proletarius可译作普罗大众、平民百姓，但论述马克思主义时，则译作无产阶段。