coterie

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Happy New Edition! Ring in the New Year with 
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?c11.htm&1
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The Word of the Day for January 3 is:

coterie   \KOH-tuh-ree\   noun
     : an intimate and often exclusive group of persons with a 
unifying common interest or purpose

Example sentence:
     Dorothy Parker belonged to a literary coterie known as the 
Algonquin Round Table, whose members were legendary for their 
terse, acerbic writing.

Did you know?
     In the days of feudalism in France, a "coterie" was a 
group of peasants who jointly held a parcel of land. 
These "tenants in common" were named from the Old French word 
for a peasant who occupies a cottage and a bit of land -- 
a "cotier." Such associations of country people inspired later 
French speakers to use "coterie" more broadly and apply it to 
other kinds of clubs and societies. By the time the word began 
appearing in English texts in the 1730s, its meaning had been 
extended to refer to any circle of people who spent a great 
deal of time together, who shared the same basic attitudes, and 
who held a passion for some particular topic -- in other words, 
to any tight-knit group.