Peter

 [This word is sometimes used sarcastically or derisively to refer to a group of such people who think that they may be better or smarter than others.] The problem with Mr. Biden’s advisory committee is that its members are part of the conformist Covid clerisy who think that lockdowns dictated from on high are good for the little people. (Author not given, “Biden’s Lockdown Lobby,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/13/2020.)

This word, when used in the above sense, can also be a synonym for educated, learned, well-educated and literate.…

in All this, however, is by way of a prolegomenon to the book’s real work, which is to show what feminist thought has to contribute to bioethics. (Hilde Lindemann Nelson, Feminist Approaches to Bioethics: Theoretical Reflections and Practical Applications [Review], Hypatia, 09/22/1998, p. 112.)

[John Kennedy’s focus on foreign affairs over domestic affairs] was the mind-set he brought to the White House, and in some ways this entire [biography of the his life from 1917 to 1956] can be read as an elaborate prolegomenon to Kennedy’s most important foreign policy address, at American University in June 1963, where he urged a realistic reappraisal of the Cold War. (David Kennedy, “Groomed to Be President,” The New York Times, 9/8/2020.)…

[Usage note: Presentiment often, but not necessarily, refers to a premonition that something bad is going to occur.] ❚ The feeling that something could go wrong [when the date becomes January 1, 2000] turns out to be hard to shake. … You can’t criticize the decision to stay on the safe side. Who knows what lunatic or team of lunatics might turn a presentiment of doom into an active effort to usher it in? Maybe, just maybe, tonight will bring chaos. (Amy Schwartz, New-Year Fears, The Washington Post, 12/31/1999.)

This word, when used in the above sense, can also be a synonym for anticipation, apprehension, fear, feeling, foreboding or hunch.…

[New Yorker Magazine editor Robert Gottlieb was] anxious to rid The New Yorker of its fustian ways, including such standard issue New Yorker language as “We betook ourselves.” (Mary Vespa, Picks & Pans: Pages, People, 10/10/1988, p. 42.)

This word, when used in the above sense, can also be a synonym for affected, bombastic, ostentatious, pretentious, or showy.…

Intractable debt, stubborn state needs, whimsical and refractory legislators, a staggering economy, all stirred in a mix of double binds on the issue of taxation, surely will try even [the] considerable talents and energy [of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger]. (Herbert Gold, He Came, He Saw, He Compromised: The Further Adventures of Arnold S., Alpha Male, The Sacramento Bee, 12/28/2003, p. E1.)

This word, when used in the above sense, can also be a synonym for disobedient, uncontrollable or unmanageable.…