clerisy

Definition

An elite group of intellectuals; learned people, the literati.

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κλῆρος (klêros) + -isy. Introduced by Coleridge, based on German Clerisei (modern Klerisei), from Late Latin clēricus.

Example Sentences

• "2003: By the nineteenth-century clerisy […] Christianity itself, yoked to material civilization, came to be questioned as gross and vulgar. — Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p. 432)"
• "2016: Only the highly educated write so badly. Indeed, the point of such ludicrous prose is to signal membership in a closed clerisy that possesses a private language. — George F. Will, Washington Post, 18 Nov, 2016"
• "2022: We invent ourselves as American writers—it's not a clerisy we’re born into... — Edward Hirsch, The Heart of American Poetry (Library of America, 2022)"