late 14c., "grasped by the understanding" (rather than by the senses), from Old French intellectuel (13c.) and directly from Latin intellectualis "relating to the understanding," from intellectus "discernment, understanding," noun use of past participle of intelligere "to understand, discern" (see intelligence).
Sense of "characterized by a high degree of intellect" is from 1819. Meaning "appealing to or engaging the mental powers" is from 1834. Intellectual property "products of the intellect" is attested from 1845. Adjective formations in the sense "of or pertaining to the intellect" included intellective (early 15c.), intellectile (1670s).
1590s, "mind, intellect, intellectual powers," from intellectual (adj.). The meaning "an intellectual person" is attested from 1650s but was hardly used in that sense in 19c. and the modern use in this sense seems to be a re-coinage from c. 1906. Related: Intellectuals.
"scorning intellectuals and their ways," 1821, from anti- + intellectual. As a noun meaning "an anti-intellectual person" from 1913.
late 14c., "to or by the understanding," from intellectual + -ly (2).
1819 (Coleridge), "infuse with intellectual quality," from intellectual + -ize. From 1827 as "exercise the mind, reason upon a matter of intellect." Related: Intellectualized; intellectualizing.
mid-15c., "the part of the mind which understands; understanding, intellect;" from Old French intellectualité and directly from Late Latin intellectualitas, from Latin intellectualis "relating to the understanding" (see intellectual).
1818, in philosophy, "belief in the supremacy of the intellect," probably based on German Intellektualismus (said by Klein to have been coined 1803 by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775-1854) from Late Latin intellectualis); see intellectual + -ism. Meaning "devotion to intellectuality" also is from 1818.
1904, from anti- + intellectualism; in some cases from anti-intellectual + -ism.
"intellectual confusion, bewilderment," 1818, from muddle (v.).
"one who opposes the progress of intellectual enlightenment," 1827; see obscurantism + -ist. As an adjective by 1841.
