English philosopher-poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) believed that if humanity was to flourish, it was necessary to create a secular organization of learned individuals, "whether poets, or philosophers, or scholars" to "diffuse through the whole community … that quantity and quality of knowledge which was indispensable." Coleridge named this hypothetical group the clerisy, a term he adapted from Klerisei, a German word for clergy (in preference, it seems, to the Russian term intelligentsia which we borrowed later, in the early 1900s). Coleridge may have equated clerisy with an old sense of clergy meaning "learning" or "knowledge," which by his time was used only in the proverb "an ounce of mother wit is worth a pound of clergy."
a society lacking a well-established clerisy with a strong commitment to democratic ideals
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
They are ruled by a grizzled and sclerotic clerisy that funnels resources to its private army, the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).—Matthew Continetti, National Review, 24 Sep. 2022 Democrats and the public-health clerisy denounced President Trump for rushing Covid vaccines.—Allysia Finley, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2022 Only those the board licenses are admitted to the clerisy uniquely entitled to publicly discuss engineering.—George Will, Twin Cities, 13 June 2017
Word History
Etymology
German Klerisei clergy, from Medieval Latin clericia, from Late Latin clericus cleric
Share