four hundred
noun US
The social elite of a community.Now, on cold misty autumnal evenings, locals say they have seen the four hundred marching through the village still.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Ward McAllister's remark ‘There are only 400 people in New York that one really knows’, later popularized in society reports by the New York Sun. The notion ‘elite’ is said to be from the selection of high-society guests by the socialite Mrs William B. Astor Jr, whose ballroom could hold 400.
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