“Elite” is one of the most contested keywords of our current epoch. A “keyword,” as Raymond Williams defines it, is a piece of vocabulary that, due to a complex history or sudden shifts in meaning over time, raises problems and difficulties every time it is used. A keyword can have positive associations (or a transparently obvious meaning) for one group of language users, while another simultaneously hears in it a cliche, a muddled abstraction, a threat, or an insult.
