Word of the Day

Wednesday, October 03, 2001

clerisy

\KLER-uh-see\ , noun;

The well educated class; the intelligentsia.

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Quotes:

The clerisy of a nation, that is, its learned men, whether poets, or philosophers, or scholars.

-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table-Talk

Our academic clerisy, I'm sure, could point out factual inadequacies, along with examples of cultural bias.

-- Robert D. Kaplan, "And Now for the News", The Atlantic, March 1997

Our clerisy contains journalists and pundits and think-tank experts and political historians.

-- Michael Lind, "Defrocking the Artist", New York Times, March 14, 1999

Origin:

Clerisy is from German Klerisei, "clergy," from Medieval Latin clericia, from Late Latin clericus, "priest," from Late Greek klerikos, "belonging to the clergy," from Greek kleros, "inheritance, lot," in allusion to Deuteronomy 18:2 ("Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them").