English
intellect
Intellect comes from Late Latin intellēctus ‘understanding, intellect’, and goes back to Latin intellegō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintellegō1‘understand’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEintellēctus1‘understanding, intellect’
- Englishearliest quotation 1983intellect1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English intellect
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1983, Intelligence: “Arms of stripes and shirts of checks / You…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintellegōWiktionary, English intellect‘understand’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEintellēctusWiktionary, English intellect‘understanding, intellect’
- Englishearliest quotation 1983intellectWiktionary, English intellect. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1983, Intelligence: “Arms of stripes and shirts of checks / You…”
A compound of inter ‘between, among’ + legō ‘read’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér ‘between’
Proto-Italic *n̥ter ‘between’
Latin inter ‘between, among’
Every English word from Latin intellegō
Today it means
noun The faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding; the cognitive faculty.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “intellect”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin intellegō / intellect