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meritocracy

noun
/mɛɹɪˈtɒkɹəsi/UK/mɛɹəˈtɑkɹəsi/US

Etymology

From merit + -o- + -cracy, coined by British sociologist Alan Fox in 1956 in an article in Socialist Commentary from May 1956, used as a derisive term, and popularized by British sociologist Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington in his 1958 book The Rise of the Meritocracy.

  1. derived from *(s)mer-✻
  2. derived from meritum
  3. derived from merite
  4. derived from merit
  5. inherited from merit
  6. formed as meritocracy — “merit + -o- + -cracy”

Definitions

  1. Rule by merit and talent.

    • As a small nation without natural resources, Singapore relies on education and meritocracy to develop its economy.
    • In Markovits’s telling, the rise of the meritocracy is a story of unintended consequences.
    • Its faculty has also been a factory of books taking differing positions on the merits and demerits of meritocracy and elite education.

  2. A type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through…

    A type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for meritocracy. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA