intelligenceintelligence

Intelligence comes from Old French intelligence, from Latin intellegentia ‘understanding’, from intellegēns, present participle of intellegō ‘to understand’.

1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintellegō¹‘to understand’
2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintellegēns¹‘understanding’
3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintellegentia¹‘intelligence’
4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400intelligence¹‘comprehension’
5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500intelligence¹‘comprehension’
6. Englishearliest quotation 1650intelligence¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English intelligence
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof: “Yet Josephus tells us of Phiala, a ſpring[…] into…”.