From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
'Elite \['E]'lite"\ ([=a]'l[=e]t"), noun [F., fr. ['e]lire to choose, L. eligere. See {Elect}.]
1. A choice or select body; the flower; as, the ['e]lite of society.
2. See {Army organization}, Switzerland. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: selected as the best; "an elect circle of artists"; "elite colleges" [syn: {elect}]
noun
1: a group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual or social or economic status [syn: {elite group}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
133 Moby Thesaurus words for "elite": FFVs, Vanity Fair, ancienne noblesse, aristocracy, baronage, baronetage, barons, beau monde, beautiful people, best, best people, bunch, cabal, cadre, cafe society, cafe-society, camarilla, carriage trade, cell, champion, charmed circle, chivalry, choice, chosen, chosen people, circle, clan, clique, closed circle, coterie, cream, cream of society, crew, crowd, drawing room, elect, elite group, establishment, fashionable society, fat, flower, for the best, good society, greatest, group, handpicked, haut monde, high life, high society, high-society, hoi polloi, in society, in-crowd, ingroup, inner circle, jet set, jet-set, jeunesse doree, junta, junto, knightage, lace-curtain, lords of creation, matchless, mob, monde, nobility, noblesse, noblesse de robe, nonesuch, nonpareil, old nobility, optimal, optimum, outfit, overlapping, paragon, paramount, peerage, peerless, people of fashion, pick, picked, pink, polite society, power elite, power structure, pride, prime, prize, queen, quintessence, quintessential, right people, ring, royalty, ruling circles, ruling class, salon, select, set, silk-stocking, smart set, social register, socially prominent, societe, society, superlative, supreme, surpassing, the Four Hundred, the best, the best ever, the best people, the brass, the classes, the tops, the very best, top, top people, unmatchable, unmatched, unparalleled, unsurpassed, upper class, upper classes, upper crust, upper ten, upper ten thousand, uppercut, very best, we-group, world of fashion
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
elite adjective Clueful. Plugged-in. One of the cognoscenti. Also used as a general positive adjective. This term is not actually native hacker slang; it is used primarily by crackers and {warez d00dz}, for which reason hackers use it only with heavy irony. The term used to refer to the folks allowed in to the "hidden" or "privileged" sections of BBSes in the early 1980s (which, typically, contained pirated software). Frequently, early boards would only let you post, or even see, a certain subset of the sections (or 'boards') on a BBS. Those who got to the frequently legendary 'triple super secret' boards were elite. Misspellings of this term in warez d00dz style abound; the forms 'l337' 'eleet', and '31337' (among others) have been sighted.
A true hacker would be more likely to use 'wizardly'. Oppose {lamer}.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
1. A term used to describe skilled {crackers} or {hackers}, or their deeds. In the last sense, compare to {elegant}. The term is also used to describe exclusive forums ({ftp} sites, {BBS}s) used for trading pirated software, {crack}ing tools, or {phreaking} codes. (1997-01-31)
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