Etymograph

English

elite

Elite comes from Middle English elit, from Old French eslit ‘chosen’, past participle of eslire, from Latin ēligō ‘to choose’ (participle ēlēctus).

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēligō1as eligere‘to choose’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēlēctus1‘chosen’
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*exlectus1uncertain
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400eslit1‘chosen, elected’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500elit1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1964elite1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English elite
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1964, France's Culture Corps: “Is there a nobler or more disinterested aim than…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēligōWiktionary, English eliteas eligere‘to choose’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēlēctusWiktionary, English elite‘chosen’
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*exlectusWiktionary, English eliteuncertain
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400eslitWiktionary, English elite‘chosen, elected’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500elitWiktionary, English elite
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1964eliteWiktionary, English elite. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1964, France's Culture Corps: “Is there a nobler or more disinterested aim than…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with elite, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather’

  • technology ← τεχνολογία ← τεχνολόγος ← λέγω ← *légō
  • collect ← collecten ← collecter ← collectare ← collecta
  • logic ← logike ← logicus ← λογῐκός ← λόγος
  • apology ← apologie ← apologia ← ἀπολογία ← λόγος
  • catalogue ← cathaloge ← catalogus ← κατάλογος ← καταλέγω
  • trilogy ← trilogia ← τριλογία ← λόγος ← *lógos
  • sociology ← sociologie ← socius ← λόγος ← *lógos
  • analogy ← analogia ← ἀναλογίᾱ ← λόγος ← *lógos
  • physiology ← physiologie ← physiologia ← φῠσῐολογίᾱ ← λόγος
  • pathology ← pathologie ← λόγος ← *lógos ← *lóǵos
  • logos ← λόγος
  • terminology ← terminologie ← terminologia ← terminus ← λόγος

261 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Of high birth or social position; aristocratic or patrician.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “elite”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin ēligō / elite