Title text:
In 1899, people were walking around shouting '23' at each other and laughing, and confused reporters were writing articles trying to figure out what it meant.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3184/
It's not specific to a language and most PIE languages and even non-PIE euro languages use a version of "elite."
English didn't come up with the word, you know?