# lumpen
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈlʌmpən/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Etymology 1

Shortened from German Lumpenproletariat, from Lump (“a contemptible person”) + Proletariat.

#### Adjective

lumpen
* Of or relating to social outcasts.
** 2014, Roberto Bolaño (tr. Natasha Wimmer), A Little Lumpen Novelita (2014 English of 2002 book):
*** A little lumpen novelita. [Story of orphaned teenagers turning to crime.]
* Of or relating to the lumpenproletariat.
* Plebeian.

##### Related terms

* lumpenism

##### Translations
#### Noun

lumpen (plural lumpens)
* A member of the lumpenproletariat.

### Etymology 2

From lump +‎ -en (adjectival suffix).

#### Adjective

lumpen (not comparable)
* Lump-like.
** 1968, Stanley Kubrick, Playboy magazine interview, September 1968, page 94:
    [About prominent critics lambasting his film 2001:] New York was the only really hostile city. Perhaps there is a certain element of the lumpen literati that is so dogmatically atheist and materialist and Earth-bound that it finds the grandeur of space and the myriad mysteries of cosmic intelligence anathema.
** 2000, Joanne Morra, Mark Robson, Marquard Smith, The Limits of Death: Between Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, →ISBN, page 72:This something, which is neither body nor machine but interior and alien to them both, pertains to the 'meat' in Gibson's world insofar as the 'meat' - that useless corporeal remainder discarded by the machine - retains an excess that cannot be reduced to the lumpen mass of fleshy existence.
** 2001, Adrian Beard, Texts and Contexts: Introducing Literature and Language Study, →ISBN:Using the last two as an example, there is a constant sense of contrast in the poem, in this case between the streamlined ship which will surge through the water and the mere lumpen shape of the clumsy iceberg.
** 2003, Dana Stabenow, A Grave Denied, →ISBN, page 17:Billy and Dandy had draped a tarp over the body but the shape itself looked lumpen and grotesque.
** 2020 August 7, Jonathan Liew, “Phil Foden stars to offer Manchester City glimpse of multiple futures”, in The Guardian‎:a slaloming winger putting lumpen defenders on their backsides, or even a sneaky centre-forward, using his boundless energy to lead the press and force mistakes.

### Etymology 3

From lump +‎ -en (verbal suffix).

#### Verb

lumpen (third-person singular simple present lumpens, present participle lumpening, simple past and past participle lumpened)
* (rare, ambitransitive) To make or become like lumps; make or become lumpy
** 1959, Harold Uriel Ribalow, The chosen, page 298:They had chicken soup with the matzo meal balls a little lumpened by hurry, challah, roast chicken, kasha, honey-cake.

### Anagrams

* plenum

## Old English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈlumpen/

### Verb

lumpen
* past participle of limpan

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from German Lumpen.

### Noun

lumpen m (plural lumpeni)
* lumpenproletarian

#### Declension
### References

* lumpen in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈlumpen/ [ˈlũm.pẽn]
* Rhymes: -umpen
* Syllabification: lum‧pen

### Noun

lumpen m (plural lúmpenes)
* underclass, hoi polloi

### Further reading

* “lumpen”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Swedish
### Etymology

From German Lumpen (“cloth, rag”).

### Pronunciation

IPA: [ˈlɵ́mpɛ̀n]

### Adjective

lumpen (comparative lumpnare, superlative lumpnast)
* low, mean (mean in an uncalled-for, often petty way)
    Att utelämna Nisse som medförfattare till boken är riktigt lumpet av honomTo leave out Nisse as co-author of the book is really low of him
* paltry, lousy (insignificant)
    En lumpen femtiolapp var allt jag fick som tackA paltry 50 kronor bill was all I got as thanks

#### Declension

$^1$ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. $^2$ Dated or archaic. $^3$ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

### Noun

lumpen c
* (informal) military service
    Synonym: militärtjänstgöring
    göra lumpen ― to do military service
    ligga i lumpen ― to do military service

#### Related terms

* lumpare (“conscript doing military service”)

#### See also

* värnplikt

### References

* lumpen in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* lumpen in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* lumpen in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)