Literatus

Literatus is a Latin term that denotes a person who is educated or literate. The standard classical form is litteratus, masculine singular, from the root lit terma littera “letter” with the -atus suffix. In English-language scholarship, literatus occasionally appears as a Latinized singular form, while the common Latin plural is litterati, which has yielded the English noun “the literati” to refer to the educated or scholarly class.

In antiquity, a vir litteratus was someone educated in literature, rhetoric, law, and other liberal arts. Literacy was not universal in Rome, so being described as literatus signified membership in an educated elite capable of reading, writing, and engaging in civic or legal culture. The term often encompassed training for public life, administration, or poetry and philosophy.

During the medieval and early modern periods, Latin remained the language of scholarship, and literatus (and its adjective lit teratus) continued to describe scholars and teachers within universities, churches, and courts. In Renaissance humanism, the literati referred both to individuals and to a broader social cohort of cultured thinkers who shaped the revival of classical learning and philology. The term thus framed educated discourse as distinct from crafts, peasantry, or clerical routine.

Today, literatus is rarely used in everyday English; more common are literate and literati. The latter, litterati in Latin, is widely used to denote the educated or intellectually influential class. The concept remains central to discussions of literacy, education, and the history of learning in classical and modern contexts.