intelligentsia

Etymology

It is borrowed from Russian интеллигенция (intelligentsiya),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} recorded in this sense from 1836, in an unpublished diary.^[2] The Russian word goes back to Latin intelligentia (“understanding, intelligence”), also spelled intellegentia,^[2][3][4][7] from intelligēns (“discerning”), the present participle of intellegō (“to understand”),^[6][3] formed from inter- and legō (“to choose”).^[3] The route between them is debated: the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English go through Polish inteligencja,^[2][5][8] though the OED notes that this specific sense is apparently attested there slightly later, in 1844 or earlier.^[2] Etymonline and Klein suggest Italian intelligenzia instead,^[6][9] while the OED records intellighenzia only from 1886, in a translation of Tolstoy, as one of the Russian word's own borrowings.^[2] These also include German Intelligenzia, from 1889 or earlier, and French intelligentsia, from 1924 or earlier.^[2] Wiktionary calls the English word a doublet of intelligence.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The part of a nation that aspires to intellectual activity and political initiative, originally in 19th-century Russia: 1883, in O. Kiryeeva's Skobeleff & Slavonic Cause, with the spelling Intelligencia: “that part of our ‘Intelligencia’ who stupidly imagine that you may stop half-way”.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to 1905,^[6] Dictionary.com to 1905–10,^[10] and the Shorter Oxford and the Concise Oxford to the early 20th century.^[8][11]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a label for a Russian social group, and the dictionaries still note that origin.^[2][8] It then widened to a similar section of any society: Merriam-Webster Unabridged describes a self-conscious, educated class claiming to act as an intellectual, social or political vanguard,^[4] and Collins has simply the educated or intellectual people of a community.^[7] Wiktionary labels it a political term, used particularly in Marxist doctrine of the intellectual elite.^[1] The plural can refer to the members of such a group, or to several such groups.^[8][4] A variant spelling is intelligentzia.^[7][4]

Timeline

• 1883 – the part of a nation, first in Russia, that aspires to intellectual activity and political initiative; spelled Intelligencia.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to 1905.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The educated and intellectual people of a society, seen as a group: The novel divided the city's intelligentsia.^[7][2][8]
2. A well-educated, articulate class forming a recognized stratum of a nation and claiming to lead it intellectually, socially or politically.^[4]
3. Such a class in 19th-century or pre-revolutionary Russia.^[2][8]

Related words

• intelligence
• intelligent

Usage notes

According to the OED, the 1976 Supplement notes that the word was formerly also pronounced with a hard g, /ɪntɛlɪˈɡɛntsɪə/.^[2] Wiktionary marks that British form as dated, but still lists the hard g for General American.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press