Elite came to English via French from the Latin word meaning "chosen." It's interesting to note, in the context of this presidential campaign, that the words elect and election have the same Latin root.

But there's also the elite that named a standard typewriter type providing 12 characters to the linear inch. The word first appeared in print in the early 20th century, shortly after typewriters were invented — but before the IBM Selectric allowed users to switch between 10, 12, and 15 characters per inch (or pitch, defined as "a unit of width of type based on the number of times a letter can be set in a linear inch").

Elite followed pica into print (and into the typeface collection) by three centuries. The larger (10 pitch) pica comes from the Latin word for magpie, a black and white bird. In Medieval Latin, pica named a "collection of church rules," presumably written in black ink on white paper. In English, pica has named a variety of types, including the 10-pitch type.