culturati
\kuhl-chuh-RAH-tee, -REY-tahy\
noun
1. people deeply interested in cultural and artistic matters: Discerning culturati are eagerly awaiting the museum's opening.
Quotes
She'd tried to persuade Russell to look at houses in Brooklyn or even Pelham, a not-too-distant refuge of the middle-aged culturati that had some unrestored houses and decent public schools, but he was determined to make his stand in Manhattan, claiming he was too old for Brooklyn and too young for Pelham--a typical Russell observation.
-- Jay McInerney, The Good Life, 2006
Origin
Culturati is patterned on the earlier term literati, which has been in English since the early 1600s. It entered English in the late 19th or early 20th century.
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