intellect

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English intellect,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French intellect (“intellectual capacity”), also intellecte,^[4][3][5] and directly borrowed from Latin intellēctus (“perception, discernment, understanding”).^[4][5][6] The OED, revised in 2010, takes it only as a borrowing of the Latin noun and notes that the French word, recorded from about 1265, was rare before the 16th century.^[7] The Latin noun is the past participle of intellegō (“to perceive, understand”), used as a noun,^[4][8][6][7] and the verb is formed from inter- (“between”) and legō (“to gather, choose, read”),^[8][9][10] so that it literally meant "to choose between".^[11][8] The Latin word was used to translate the Greek word for mind in Aristotle.^[4] intelligent, intelligence and intelligible come from the same verb,^[8][11] and lecture and legible from its base.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Understanding, the power of reasoning: about 1380, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,^[5] but the OED's first quotation is from Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, before 1398.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the word was little used before the 16th century.^[4] Two early senses, "meaning, sense" (before 1460 to 1598) and "comprehension" (about 1475 to 1543), died out.^[7] From 1602 the word was used of intellect embodied: first a being or spirit with understanding, now obsolete, then a person of great intelligence, or such people collectively.^[7][12] The plural intellects, mental powers or wits, appears in 1649 and is now archaic.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as the intelligent mind, the power of understanding.^[13] A verb intellect, to understand by the intellect, is recorded from 1599 and was apparently formed again in the 20th century; it is now chiefly philosophical.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – understanding, in Chaucer.^[5]
• before 1398 – the faculty of knowing and reasoning.^[7]
• before 1460 – meaning, sense (obsolete by 1598).^[7]
• 1599 – verb, to understand by means of the intellect.^[7]
• 1602 – a being with understanding; later a person of great intelligence.^[7]
• 1649 – plural, mental powers, wits (now archaic).^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The power of the mind to reason, think and understand, as distinct from feeling and will: His quick intellect made him a feared opponent in debate.^[12][2][7]
2. A person with a powerful mind, or such people collectively: one of the finest intellects of her generation.^[12][7]

Related words

• intellectual
• intellectualism
• intellectualize
• intelligence
• intelligent
• intelligentsia
• intelligible
• intellection
• lecture
• legible

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.