literati

noun

1. (plural, plural-normally)Well-educated, literary people; intellectuals who are interested in literature.

   “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.”

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

   “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.”

   “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.”