Where does “literati” come from?
Literati comes from Latin litteratus, derived from Latin littera, from Ancient Greek διφθέρα, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -tós.
literati (English): Well-educated, literary people; intellectuals who...
Definitions
- Well-educated, literary people; intellectuals who...
Ancestry of “literati”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Latin | literati | nominative masculine plural of literātus;... |
| 2 | Latin | literatus | Alternative form of litterātus |
| 3 | Latin | lītera | — |
| 4 | Old Latin | leitera | — |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂leyH- | to smear |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | leyh₂- | to die, disapear; to avoid, elude, decline,... |
Words derived from “literati”