▪ I. intellect, n.
(ˈɪntɪlɛkt)
[ad. L. intellectus (u stem) a perceiving, discerning, discernment, understanding, meaning, sense, signification, f. ppl. stem of intellegĕre: see intelligent. Cf. It. intelletto (Boccaccio), F. intellect (13th c., Brunetto Latino); but the word was little used in F. or Eng. before the 16th c.]
1. That faculty, or sum of faculties, of the mind or soul by which one knows and reasons (excluding sensation, and sometimes imagination; distinguished from feeling and will); power of thought; understanding. Rarely in reference to the lower animals.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1945 Oonly the intellect with outen moore That dwelled in his herte syk and soore Gan faillen when the herte felte deeth [Boccaccio Teseide x. cxi, Sol nello intelletto e nel cuore]. ― Sec. Nun's T. 339 Right as a man hath sapiences three Memorie, Engyn, and Intellect also. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. iii. (Add. MS. 27944), As þe yee is in þe body, so is þe intellect vndirstondinge in þe soule. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. i. 64 It reioyceth my intellect, true wit. 1593 ― Rich. II, v. i. 28 Hath Bullingbrooke Depos'd thine Intellect? 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 351 All Heart they live, all Head, all Eye, all Eare, All Intellect, all Sense. a 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 28 The proper Acts of the Intellect are Intellection, Deliberation, and Determination or Decision. 1696 Phillips, Intellect, that Faculty of the Soul which is usually called the Understanding. 1773 Ld. Monboddo Language (1774) I. i. iv. 45 The faculty by which it [the mind] operates singly, and without participation of the body, I call intellect. 1862 Darwin Fertil. Orchids i. 46 To test the intellect of moths I tried the following little experiment. 1870 D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rur. Sports (ed. 3) §851 The elephant..has given instances of what may be termed intellect that the horse does not possess. 1888 Ruskin Præterita III. iii. 93 The..elasticity and acuteness of the American intellect. |
2. transf. † a. An intellect embodied; a being possessing understanding; an ‘intelligence’, a spirit. Obs. b. Intellect embodied; a person of a great intellect; also, intellectual persons collectively.
| 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. i. Wks. 1856 I. 105 Thou royal spirit of Andrugio, where ere thou hoverst (Ayrie intellect). c 1645 Milton Sonn. Detract. cert. Treat., The subject new: it walked the town awhile, Numbering good intellects; now seldom pored on. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. vi. (1848) 207 How little will humane Intellects, without Revelation, discover of that manifold Wisdome of God. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. iv. §19 It is more improper to say of God, He is an intellect or intelligent Being, than to say of a reasonable soul that it is an angel. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. iii, He stood-up in full coffee-house..where all the Virtuosity, and nearly all the Intellect of the place assembled of an evening. 1838 De Quincey Shaks. Wks. 1863 xv. 69 This transcendent poet, the most august amongst created intellects. 1856 Masson Ess., Shaks. & Goethe 22 To say that he [Shakespeare] was the greatest intellect that ever lived, is to bring the shades of Aristotle and Plato, and Bacon and Newton..grumbling about us. |
3. pl. Intellectual powers; mental faculties; ‘wits’, ‘senses’. Very common in 17–18th c. Now arch. or vulgar.
| 1698 Vanbrugh 1st Pt. æsop i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 370/1, I know he's modest, but I likewise know His intellects are categorical. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 95 ¶18 My judgment embarrassed, and my intellects distorted. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) IV. xcv. 157 A man of sound intellects. 1799 E. Home in Phil. Trans. 166 He was weak in his intellects. 1814 F. Burney Wanderer I. 390 Her faculties are all disordered: her very intellects, I fear, are shaken. 1832 H. Martineau Demerara i. 12 Mark had never been very bright in his intellects during his best days. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. (1847) III. vii. §48. 159 To ask, why this Don Quixote..should have been more likely to lose his intellects by reading romances than Cervantes himself. |
† 4. Understanding; comprehension. Obs. rare.
| c 1470 Harding Chron. Proem. iii, And some in Frenche they made, for intellecte Of men that could no Latyn vnderstande. |
† 5. That which one is to understand by something; the sense, meaning, signification, purport (of a word or passage). Obs. rare.
| 1520 Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 6 Which verbe dothe accorde with the intellecte or significacyon & not with the voyce. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 137, I will looke againe on the intellect of the Letter, for the nomination of the partie writing [mispr. written] to the person written vnto. |
▪ II. † ˈintellect, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. a. To give to understand; to inform. b. To understand (in a particular way); to interpret.
| 1599 R. Linche Fount. Anc. Fict. B b ij, Which intellecteth vs..that Iudges and such like officers..ought continually striue by all endeuours to suppresse wrongs. Ibid. E, These Stations are many times thus intellected: by the Spring is meant Venus; the Summer signifies Ceres. |