INTELLECTUAL, INTELLIGENT, INTELLIGIBLE

INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL

Read and translate the following sentences paying special atten­tion to the words in bold type.

1. She (Mrs Oliver) also took out a pair of spectacles and put them on her nose. There was a really earnest look about her now! «Almost intellectual,» Mrs Oliver thought approvingly. 2. In the course of the twelfth century Paris developed into the intellectual centre of Europe. 3. «Why does he sit always alone, with his back to us, too?» «Ah! He is a Baron.» «But, poor soul, he cannot help it,» I said. «Surely that unfortunate fact ought not to debar him from the pleasures of intellectual intercourse.» 4. «I must have intellectual conversation,» she boomed. «When you have a brain like mine you’ve got to consort with your intellectual equals.» 5. He had been responsible all year for his intellectual welfare. 6. George looked at Elizabeth Paston. A slender figure in red silk: black, glossy hair drawn back from a high, intellectual forehead; large, very intelligent dark. eyes. 7. I was married on the 18th of August to Rita Collier. She is a fine girl, one year younger than I am, graduated from Mills College cum laude (unlike her husband). Her father and mother are Mr and Mrs David B. Collier. Mr Collier is a chemist, a graduate of Western Reserve University (Phi Beta Kappa). Mrs Collier was also a Phi Beta at Western Reserve. So you see I married into an intellectual family. 8. Why, you are an intelligent girl. Would you like to see a play with me sometime? 9. She did look like a very intelligent monkey. 10. There was something remarkably intelligent and keen in the small, triangular face with the high cheek-bones, straight nose, and thin, tight little mouth. 11. The whites of his intelligent eyes were buttercup yellow. 12. They (her eyes) were warm and bright and intelligent. 13. A fairly young man, short, comfortably stout, smooth-shaven and with an intelligent face, he seemed a very nice man indeed. 14. One hour before the close of the poll, Mr Perker solicited the honour of a private interview with these intelligent, these noble, these patriotic men. 15. Because of the suffix «-ot» it sometimes came about that «robot» was taken for a French word and accordingly pronounced «roh-boh». Around 1930 the belief that a word is made more intelligible by pronouncing fully-fledged vowels in ustressed syllables was not as strong as it is now, so that the other usual pronunciation was simply «Robert». 16. «That,» said I, «sounds like one of those unintelligible remarks such as «Why is a policeman?» 17. He muttered an unintelligible reply.

 

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Intellectual ad]. Of, appealing to, requiring the exercise of intellect; having or showing good reasoning power, good understanding; enlightened; of high mental capacity, e.g. the ~ faculties, an ~ person, ~ interests, an ~: circle.

Derivative: intellectually adv.

Intelligent adj. Having, showing or using intelligence; having or showing (usually a high degree of) understanding and brain power; quick to learn, e.g. an ~ child, an ~. question.

Antonym: unintelligent adj.

Derivative: intelligently adv.

Intelligible adj. That can be easily understood; clear to the mind; comprehensible., e.g. an ~. description, ~ words.

Antonym: unintelligible adj. Derivative: intelligibly adv.

Intellectual and intelligent are sometimes confused because they both pertain to the intellect and consequently their meanings are somewhat similar.

Intellectual suggests keen intelligence, coupled with interest and ability in the more advanced fields of-knowledge; it often carries an implied contrast to emotional, moral, imaginative, and the like. The word is applicable to persons, their utterances, acts and qualities. The main Russian equivalents of intellectual are интеллектуальный, умственный, мыслительный, мыслящий. An intellectual person may be translated as интеллектуал; intellectual occupation as интеллектуальное занятие, интеллигентный труд.

Intelligent stresses the power to use one’s mind successfully, implying the ability to learn, to understand from experience or to respond successfully to a new experience. Intelligent as well as intellectual, is applicable to persons, their utterances, acts and qualities; besides it may be applied to some animals and their behaviour. The meaning of intelligent is covered by the Russian adjectives умный, разумный, смышленый, знающий.

In some contexts boths intellectual and intelligent may be used, when characterizing someone from different angles, e.g. an intellectual (or intelligent) man.

Caution: the English equivalent of интеллигентный человек is a cultured (cultivated, educated) person; an intellectual (never an intelligent person); the word интеллигенция corresponds to the intelligentsia or the intellectuals.

Intelligent is sometimes confused with intelligible because of the identity of the root morpheme. However, the meanings of these adjectives are utterly different thanks to the use of different suffixes. Intelligible is applied only to things, acts, qualities, never to persons, and means понятный, доступный, ясный, вразумительный. More often than not its antonym unintelligible is used.