the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. A citizen of the lowest class, who served the state, not with property, but only by having children; hence, a common person.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Of or belonging to the lowest or poorest class of people; pertaining to those who are dependent on daily or casual employment for support; proletarian.
n. A common person; one belonging to the lower orders.
Word Usage
"At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen years of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so insolently calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower"