Etymologically
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intelligent

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪnˈtel.ɪ.dʒənt/[1]

Etymology

It is probably a back-formation from intelligence, modelled on borrowed from Latin intelligēns (“discerning, understanding”) (accusative intelligentem),[2][3][4][5] the present participle of intelligere, earlier intellegere (“to understand, perceive”),[2][4][6] literally “to choose among”, from inter (“between”) and legere (“to choose, gather”).[6][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having a high degree of understanding, quick to understand: 1509.[7][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1500, and MWU's first known use for one sense is 1585.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Understanding or knowing a particular thing, conversant with it, is from 1546,[7] and having the faculty of understanding at all, possessing intellect, from 1598.[7] In Shakespeare's time it could also mean bearing information, communicative (1605).[7] Of speech or action, showing understanding, is from 1842.[7] A person of intelligence was an intelligent from 1601, now rare.[7] Of a device or machine, able to vary its behaviour in response to changing situations, as an intelligent terminal, is from 1969.[7][8] Intelligent design, as a name for an alternative to the theory of evolution, is from 1999.[3] Intelligence is older, about 1380 in Chaucer's Boethius.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1380 – intelligence, in Chaucer.[2]
  • 1509 – quick to understand.[7][2]
  • 1546 – conversant with something.[7]
  • 1598 – having understanding.[7]
  • 1842 – showing understanding.[7]
  • 1969 – of a machine.[7]
  • 1999 – intelligent design.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Having intelligence, or a high degree of it; mentally quick.
  2. Showing good judgment and reason: an intelligent choice.
  3. Of a machine or device, able to store and process data and respond to changing conditions.

Word family

  • intelligential
  • intelligently
  • hyperintelligent
  • nonintelligent
  • superintelligent

Usage notes

The AHD compares intelligent with bright, brilliant, knowing, quick-witted, smart and intellectual; intelligent usually implies the ability to cope with new demands and to solve problems.[8]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin