Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Meritocracy
/ˌmɛrɪˈtɒkrəsi/noun
A system in which position depends on demonstrated ability and effort rather than on birth or wealth.
The Greek roots
κράτος
krátos
power, rule
Literally: “rule by what is earned”
Follow a root:κράτος20 words
The story of the word
Michael Young coined it in 1958 as the title of a satire, The Rise of the Meritocracy, which imagines Britain in 2033 sorted by intelligence plus effort and ending in revolt. Politicians adopted the word as praise, and Young spent a Guardian column in 2001 objecting. The front half is Latin meritum and only the back half is Greek, which is why some readers at the time called the word badly built.
- How it travelled
- Latin + Ancient Greek → modern coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1958
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
democracyaristocracyplutocracyautocracy
In a sentence
The firm calls itself a meritocracy and hires from four universities.