meritocracy（n.）
"智识精英统治"一词由英国社会学家迈克尔·杨（Michael Young，1915-2002）于1958年创造，并用作他的著作《智识精英的崛起》的书名； 由 merit（优点）和 -cracy（统治）组成。相关词汇： Meritocratic。
[Young's book] imagined an elite that got its position not from ancestry, but from test scores and effort. For him, meritocracy was a negative term; his spoof was a warning about the negative consequences of assigning social status based on formal educational qualifications, and showed how excluding from leadership anyone who couldn't jump through the educational hoops would create a new form of discrimination. And that's exactly what has happened. [Lani Guinier, interview, New York Times, Feb. 7, 2015]
【杨的书】描绘了一种精英阶层，他们的地位不是由血统决定，而是由考试成绩和努力决定。对他来说，智识精英统治是一个负面词汇； 他的恶搞是对基于正式教育资格分配社会地位的负面后果的警告，并展示了如何排除任何不能通过教育障碍的领导人将会创造一种新形式的歧视。这正是发生的事情。【拉尼·吉尼尔，采访，纽约时报，2015年2月7日】
该词起源时间：1958年