Question

What does san-culottes mean

Answer 1

A lower class Parisian republican in the French Revolution / an extreme republican or revolutionary. Sorry if this isn’t what you were asking, it’s how I understood it!

Answer 2

Sans-culottes (from French "without breeches") is a term from the French Revolution that refers to the Parisian workers and petty bourgeois who wore long knickerbocker pants, in contrast to the breeches worn by nobility, as they were suitable for work. Sans-culottes were therefore people who lived from physical labor. There were usually small craftsmen, journeymen, traders and innkeepers. The Sans-culottes became politically influential because they supported the Jacobins, but they pursued different political goals.