Clerisy

//ˈklɛɹɪsi// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An elite group of intellectuals; learned people, the literati. countable, uncountable

    "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)"

  2. 2
    an educated and intellectual elite wordnet
  3. 3
    The clergy, or their opinions, as opposed to the laity. countable, uncountable

    "Few men have ever had a stronger conviction of their clerisy, of their belonging to the clerkly caste of the responsibles."

Etymology

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

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