This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
drama queen
illiterati
dastard
samfie
mammothrept

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(i-lit-uh-RAH-tee)

MEANING:

noun: Illiterate or uninformed people.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin illitterati, plural of illiteratus (illiterate). Earliest documented use: 1788.

USAGE:

“No one wanted to shoot booksellers, I assured myself -- except for illiterati and television executives during sweeps month.”
Joan Hess; A Really Cute Corpse; St Martins Press; 1988.

“Robert Dennis, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, said, ... ‘global climate change [is] still vehemently denied by the scientific illiterati.’”
Michael Specter; Test-Tube Burgers; The New Yorker; May 23, 2011.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: