illiterati

alternative Illiterati

1. pluralplural onlyThose who cannot read and write Latin.

   Also known as illiterati (people ignorant of Latin letters), the common run of people were defined intellectually by the limits of their idiom and by the type and "quality" of reading materials available to them.

   2005, Jonathan Christian Petty, Wagner's Lexical Tonality, page 329

   2 more examples

   Offering this address largely in the first person plural, Foxe identifies himself not with the illiterati, who were incapable of reading it, but with Latin-literate Protestants whose numbers must have included many who shared the compiler's ministerial vocation.

   2006, John N. King, Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' and Early Modern Print Culture, →ISBN, page 244

   Moreover, the fact that such listeners existed at all is a powerful testament to the cultural importance that Latin history enjoyed at the beginning of the twelfth century, and Rober's broad includsion of literati and illiterati alike even expands Baudri's decidedly inclusive sense of audience for Latin histories.

   2007, Christopher Langdon Freeman, The Figure of a Hero, →ISBN, page 216

2. pluralplural onlyThose who are illiterate or unlearned.

   As a symbol of the “hybrid margin,” pidgin is the subversive lect of the illiterati.

   2007, Chantal J. Zabus, The African Palimpsest, page 86

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   A lower species, indeed, is that of the scribes you mention, who every night compose a journal for the satisfaction of such illiterati

   1788 July 4, letter Horace Walpole to Hannah More

   Aiming to dissipate the "Establishment view" that "Occultism consists of immature psychopathic illiterati with criminal and anti-social tendencies who emanate largely from lower socio-economic stratas of our society," ...

   1995, Michael York, The Emerging Network, →ISBN, page 133

   However, this has lead some researchers to conclude that replication is itself wasteful, that statistical methods are largely superfluous for molecular research, and that granting institutions and journals requesting such statistical control are composed of molecular illiterati putting red tape in the way of scientific progress.

   2003, Eric M. Blalock, A Beginner’s Guide to Microarrays, →ISBN, page 187

   Thus, in the spirit of Lester Bangs, the editors of Zontar, a Boston-based fanzine devoted primarily to the promotion of 'badfilm', not that their publication "is not for the delicate tastebuds of the pseudo-genteel cultural illiterati who enjoy mind-rotting, soul-endangering pabulum like Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth and the other white-boy 'new-age' puke-shit served up from the bowels of PBS during pledge-week”.

   2009, Ian Conrich, Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema, →ISBN, page 103

   The term internets[…]is an example of memetic usage that functions as a high profile in-joke. […] Internet users wield this inside joke to suggest that they are part of the cognoscenti rather than the ‘illiterati’[…]

   2012, Michele Zappavigna, Discourse of Twitter and Social Media

1. pluralplural onlyAlternative letter-case form of illiterati.