illiterati

illiterati pl (plural only)

1. Those who cannot read and write Latin.
   • 2005, Jonathan Christian Petty, Wagner's Lexical Tonality, page 329:

     Also known as illiterati (people ignorant of Latin letters), the common run of people were defined intellectually by the limits of their idiom and by the type and "quality" of reading materials available to them.

   • 2006, John N. King, Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' and Early Modern Print Culture, →ISBN, page 244:

     Offering this address largely in the first person plural, Foxe identifies himself not with the illiterati, who were incapable of reading it, but with Latin-literate Protestants whose numbers must have included many who shared the compiler's ministerial vocation.

   • 2007, Christopher Langdon Freeman, The Figure of a Hero, →ISBN, page 216:

     Moreover, the fact that such listeners existed at all is a powerful testament to the cultural importance that Latin history enjoyed at the beginning of the twelfth century, and Rober's broad includsion of literati and illiterati alike even expands Baudri's decidedly inclusive sense of audience for Latin histories.

2. Those who are illiterate or unlearned.
   • 1788 July 4, letter Horace Walpole to Hannah More:

     A lower species, indeed, is that of the scribes you mention, who every night compose a journal for the satisfaction of such illiterati

   • 1995, Michael York, The Emerging Network, →ISBN, page 133:

     Aiming to dissipate the "Establishment view" that "Occultism consists of immature psychopathic illiterati with criminal and anti-social tendencies who emanate largely from lower socio-economic stratas of our society," ...

   • 2003, Eric M. Blalock, A Beginner’s Guide to Microarrays, →ISBN, page 187:

     However, this has lead some researchers to conclude that replication is itself wasteful, that statistical methods are largely superfluous for molecular research, and that granting institutions and journals requesting such statistical control are composed of molecular illiterati putting red tape in the way of scientific progress.

   • 2007, Chantal J. Zabus, The African Palimpsest, page 86:

     As a symbol of the “hybrid margin,” pidgin is the subversive lect of the illiterati.

   • 2009, Ian Conrich, Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema, →ISBN, page 103:

     Thus, in the spirit of Lester Bangs, the editors of Zontar, a Boston-based fanzine devoted primarily to the promotion of 'badfilm', not that their publication "is not for the delicate tastebuds of the pseudo-genteel cultural illiterati who enjoy mind-rotting, soul-endangering pabulum like Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth and the other white-boy 'new-age' puke-shit served up from the bowels of PBS during pledge-week”.

   • 2012, Michele Zappavigna, Discourse of Twitter and Social Media‎:

     The term internets […] is an example of memetic usage that functions as a high profile in-joke. […] Internet users wield this inside joke to suggest that they are part of the cognoscenti rather than the ‘illiterati’ […]

• ignorati