clerisy
An elite group of intellectuals; learned people, the literati.
countable, uncountable
2003: By the nineteenth-century clerisy […] Christianity itself, yoked to material civilization, came to be questioned as gross and vulgar. — Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p. 432)
The clergy, or their opinions, as opposed to the laity.
countable, uncountable
Few men have ever had a stronger conviction of their clerisy, of their belonging to the clerkly caste of the responsibles.
Where it comes from
From Ancient Greek κλῆρος (klêros) + -isy. Introduced by Coleridge, based on German Clerisei (modern Klerisei), from Late Latin clēricus.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry clerisy (CC BY-SA 4.0).