English
Etymology
Introduced by w:Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge, apparently after German Clerisei; in late Latin clericia.

Pronunciation
IPA|/�kl�rɪsi/

Noun
en-noun|clerisies

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

Quotations
#*2003: By the nineteenth-century clerisy [...] Christianity itself, yoked to material civilization, came to ber questioned as gross and vulgar. � w:Roy Porter|Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p. 432)

Synonyms
intelligentsia

vi:clerisy

• 2007-03-21 13:29 - Zigzig20s - /* Noun */ improved quote section

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