protoproletariat means A group of unskilled labourers with the potential of becoming a proletariat. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
Why “protoproletariat” is a great word
PROTOPROLETARIAT — [Noun] The class of unskilled laborers existing in a pre-industrial or early-capitalist society, seen as the embryonic form from which a modern industrial working class may coalesce. From the combining form proto- ("first, earliest, primitive") + proletariat ("the class of wage-earners in a capitalist society"). Unlike "proletariat," which denotes the solidified industrial class of mature capitalism, or "lumpenproletariat," which describes a destitute and politically inert underclass, the protoproletariat is a condition of becoming, not being. It is the landless peasant drifting toward the factory town, the artisan whose craft is rendered obsolete by the machine, and the casual laborer waiting at the gates at dawn—the raw human material awaiting the relentless stamp of history.
Etymology
From proto- + proletariat.
noun
- A group of unskilled labourers with the potential of becoming a proletariat.