different between intellectual vs pseudointellectual

English

Alternative forms

• intellectuall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French intellectuel, from Latin intellectualis

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nt??l?k(t)???l/

Adjective

intellectual (comparative more intellectual, superlative most intellectual)

1. Pertaining to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive.
   • 1920, Harold Monro, Preface to s:The year's at the spring; an anthology of recent poetry

     Pleasure is various, but it cannot exist where the emotions or the imagination have not been powerfully stirred. Whether it be called sensual or intellectual, pleasure cannot be willed

2. Endowed with intellect; having a keen sense of understanding; having the capacity for higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or cleverness
   • 1894, Edgar Wilson Nye, Nye's History of the USA Chapter 30

     The Fenimore Cooper Indian is no doubt a brave and highly intellectual person, educated abroad, refined and cultivated by foreign travel, graceful in the grub dance or scalp walk-around, yet tender-hearted as a girl, walking by night fifty-seven miles in a single evening to warn his white friends of danger.

3. Suitable for exercising one's intellect; perceived by the intellect
   • 1916, Joseph McCabe, The Tyranny of Shams Chapter IX

   • A good deal of nonsense is written about sport and entertainment. Many of us can, with pleasant ease, suspend a severely intellectual task for a few hours to witness a first-class football match.

4. Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind.

5. (archaic, poetic) Spiritual.
   • 1805, William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book II, lines 331-334 (eds. Jonathan Wordsworth, M. H. Abrams, & Stephen Gill, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1979):

     I deem not profitless those fleeting moods / Of shadowy exultation; not for this, / That they are kindred to our purer mind / And intellectual life […]

Antonyms

• nonintellectual

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

intellectual (plural intellectuals)

1. An intelligent, learned person, especially one who discourses about learned matters.

   Synonym: highbrow

   Coordinate terms: egghead, nerd, geek

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, pp. 20–21:

     ‘You know I hate intellectuals.’
     ‘You mean you hate people who are cleverer than you are.’
     ‘Yes. I suppose that's why I like you so much, Tom.’

2. (archaic) The intellect or understanding; mental powers or faculties.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, 1650, Book I, Chapter 1, p. 2,^[1]

     […] although their intellectuals had not failed in the theory of truth, yet did the inservient and brutall faculties control the suggestion of reason […]

Derived terms

• public intellectual

Translations

See also

• intelligentsia

References

• intellectual in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• "intellectual" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 169.

English

Etymology

pseudo- (“false, fake”) +? intellectual

Noun

pseudointellectual (plural pseudointellectuals)

1. A person who claims proficiency in scholarly or artistic activities while lacking in-depth knowledge or critical understanding.
2. A person who pretends to be of greater intelligence than he or she in fact is.

Usage notes

Usage is fraught, and pseudointellectual may be used as a general term of abuse for intellectuals one dislikes or disagrees with. Nevertheless, in more careful use a rather clear distinction is drawn: a pseudointellectual is someone dishonestly or insincerely using the language, style, or topics of an intellectual, but who lacks the goals, morals, or ability of a “genuine” intellectual. It is someone who acts pretentiously and wishes to win an argument or impress, rather than modestly trying to find the truth – a focus on surface and rhetoric over content. These often involve a superficial understanding of a subject and condescension to the audience, as well as possible self-delusion (not being consciously dishonest, but rather sincerely thinking oneself to be behaving as a genuine intellectual despite one's incompetence).

Synonyms

• pseud
• pseudo

See also

• See also Thesaurus:deceiver
• charlatan
• fraud
• sophist

Adjective

pseudointellectual (comparative more pseudointellectual, superlative most pseudointellectual)

1. Pretentiously or insincerely intellectual.

References

• Sydney J. Harris, circa 1981 November 20 (syndicated column), published as “Distinctions Between Intellectuals And Pseudo-Intellectuals” (mirror) in the Detroit Free Press, (11/20/81) and “Telling the real from the pseudo”, Sarasota Journal, Nov 23, 1981, among others