English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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super- +‎ elite

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /suːpəɹɪˈliːt/, /suːpəɹəˈliːt/, /suːpəɹɛˈliːt/, /suːpəɹeɪˈliːt/

Noun

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superelite (plural superelites)

  1. An elite that ranks above the regular elite.
    • 1952, United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Armed Services, Incentive Pay and Overseas Allowances[1], U.S. Government Printing Office, page 106:
      I can summarize my own position very simply: That, if they are bonus payments for hazardous duty and to the degree that they are, they should be equalized rather than confined to a special group. To the degree which they are bonus payments for attracting better qualified personnel, I am very dubious about using money incentives to build up an elite or a superelite or a super-superelite.
    • 1963, Clinton Hartley Grattan, The Southwest Pacific Since 1900[2], Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, page 104:
      This meant that high-school graduates were in effect an elite, and since only a minority of them went on to the universities, university graduates were a superelite.
    • 1982, Clinton Hartley Grattan, Political Affairs 1982-07: Volume 61, Issue 7[3], Political Affairs Publishers, Incorporated, page 8:
      This all-out goal is combined with an apparent readiness to launch nuclear aggression whenever its calculations “assure” the survival of the few thousand superelite of the United States.

Adjective

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superelite (comparative more superelite, superlative most superelite)

  1. Being above and beyond elite.
    • 1965, Geneviève Antoine-Dariaux, Entertaining with Elegance[4], Doubleday, page 381:
      There are also two superelite champagnes, which are produced in a very limited quantity.
    • 1967, Robert Sherrill, The Accidental President[5], Grossman Publishers, page 190:
      For an example of this need: when members of the superelite Business Council held their fall meeting at Hot Springs, Virginia, they predicted that toward the end of 1967 there would be a sharp slowdown of the economy; indeed, a group of economists headed by Walter Hoadley, senior vice-president of the Bank of America, forecast virtually a halt in economic growth in the butt months of 1967.
    • 1973, Joan Huber, Changing Women in a Changing Society[6], University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 168:
      Three had their own practices, and two had become public figures. One was salaried but had attained the superelite position of partnership in a Wall Street Firm.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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