[Ads-l] the elite

[Joel Berson]

Have we heard "_effete_ elite" (of the East) yet?

JSB

      From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Friday, June 26, 2015 7:51 AM
 Subject: [ADS-L] the elite
   
OED has no entry for this popular U.S. political snarl word, which has been
around for quote a while.

An interviewee on last night's CNN special on "The Seventies" characterized
"the elites" of the day as "Harvard, the press, the East Coast
establishment."

The usual phrase is "the liberal elites."  At least I've never heard of any
"conservative elites," even though they're just as wealthy, educated,
influential, and "elite" in (sort of) the older sense.

I have also heard the singular applied to an individual, though only, I
think, in the past several years: "She is just another elite."

JL

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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