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precariat

noun

Etymology

Blend of precarious + proletariat, emerging from the socio-economic theories of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and popularized by economist Guy Standing in his book The Precariat (2011).

  1. derived from *h₂el-✻ — “to grow, nourish”
  2. derived from proletārius
  3. borrowed from prolétariat
  4. compounded as precariat — “precarious + proletariat”

Definitions

  1. People suffering from precarity, especially as a social class

    People suffering from precarity, especially as a social class; people living a precarious existence, without security or predictability, especially job security.

    • The global precariat is not yet a class in the Marxian sense, being internally divided and only united in fears and insecurities. But it is a class in the making, approaching a consciousness of common vulnerability.
    • The American Precariat seems more hunkered down, insecure, risk averse, relying on friends and family but without faith in American possibilities. This fatalism is historically uncharacteristic of America.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for precariat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA