English

Noun

literati pl ‎(plural only)

1. Well-educated, literary people; intellectuals who are interested in literature
   • 1748, Tobias George Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, Forgotten Books, published 2008, ISBN 9781606208472, page 301:

     First, to Counsellor Fitzclabber, who, he told me, was then employed in compiling a history of the kings of Minster, from Irish manuscripts; and then to his friend Mr. Gahagan, who was a profound philosopher and politician, and had projected many excellent schemes for the good of his country. But it seems these literati had been very ill rewarded for their ingenious labours; for, between them both, there was but one shirt, and half a pair of breeches.

   • 1883, Isabella L. Bird, The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither, BiblioBazaar, published 2008, ISBN 9780554384092, Letter IV (Continued), page 83:

     He is not of the people, this lordly magistrate. He is one of the privileged literati. His literary degrees are high and numerous.

   • 1968, Max Webber, “Bureaucracy and Political Leadership”, in Reinhard Bendix, editor, State and Society: A Reader in Comparative Political Sociology, University of California Press, published 1973, ISBN 9780520024908, page 307:

     Just like every other human organization, the selection of political leaders through the parties has its weaknesses, but these have been exposed ad nauseam by German literati during the last decades.

   • 2001, Roger L. Emerson, “The Scottish Literati and America, 1680–1800”, in Ned C. Landsman, editor, Nation and Province in the First British Empire: Scotland and the Americas,1600–1800, Bucknell University Press, ISBN 9780838754887, page 183:

     Eighteenth-century Scottish intellectuals, the literati, had substantial interests in America. Yet no one has ever noticed just how extensive the ties were that bound the literati to the new world, or how relatively novel those were for Scots in the eighteenth century, and how they were formed and shaped.

Antonyms

• illiterati

Derived terms

Translations

Latin

Adjective

literātī

1. nominative masculine plural of literātus
2. genitive masculine singular of literātus
3. genitive neuter singular of literātus
4. vocative masculine plural of literātus