The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

'Elite \['E]`lite"\ ([=a]`l[=e]t"), n. [F., fr. ['e]lire to
   choose, L. eligere. See Elect.]
   1. A choice or select body; the flower; as, the ['e]lite of
      society.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. See Army organization, Switzerland.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

elite
    adj 1: selected as the best; "an elect circle of artists";
           "elite colleges" [syn: elect, elite]
    n 1: a group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual
         or social or economic status [syn: elite, elite group]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 January 2023):

elite
leet

   1.  A term used to describe skilled crackers or
   hackers, or their deeds.  In the last sense, compare to
   elegant.

   The term is also used to describe exclusive forums (ftp
   sites, BBSs) used for trading pirated software, cracking
   tools, or phreaking codes.

   (1997-01-31)


The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

elite
 adj.

    Clueful. Plugged-in. One of the cognoscenti. Also used as a general
    positive adjective. This term is not actually native hacker slang; it is
    used primarily by crackers and warez d00dz, for which reason hackers use
    it only with heavy irony. The term used to refer to the folks allowed in to
    the “hidden” or “privileged” sections of BBSes in the early 1980s (which,
    typically, contained pirated software). Frequently, early boards would only
    let you post, or even see, a certain subset of the sections (or ‘boards’)
    on a BBS. Those who got to the frequently legendary ‘triple super secret’
    boards were elite. Misspellings of this term in warez d00dz style abound;
    the forms l337 eleet, and 31337 (among others) have been sighted.

    A true hacker would be more likely to use ‘wizardly’. Oppose lamer.