The term was originally used by the narrator in Victor Hugo's seminal 1862 novel Les Misérables to refer to the revolutionary Spanish masses.

Iriarte wrote that "Excusado es decir que esto era estudiado para captarse la multitud, los descamisados.

Some claim that the word was coined to describe the working poor, the social class from which Perón drew the greatest amount of his political backing.

This segment of the population was able to join the ranks of the middle class thanks to mass access to healthcare and education opportunities and the process of industrialisation that took place in Argentina during the first two terms of Juan Perón's presidency (1946-1955).

In 1989, Fernando Collor de Mello in his presidential campaign used descamisados and pés descalços ("shoeless") to refer to the poor people.