An individual who spends more time trying to flex their intellect rather than actually wanting to learn. Pseudo-intellectuals aren't unintelligent or uneducated per se, however the crux of the issue is that they are not as intelligent as they are letting on. For example, to be an intellect on a specific subject, an intellectual would read multiple books or articles then study them in order to retain all the information. A pseudo-intellectual would read one article and label themselves an expert on the subject.
Ways to spot a pseudo-intellectual
1. Plagiarising
2. Quoting
3. Using advanced language to make themselves sound smart, but fails because they use the word incorrectly
4. They use their knowledge as a weapon. For example smart people want to pass on the knowledge they have to other people to inform them on a certain subject. Pseudo-intellectuals on the other hand seek to impress and show off, so put others down to increase their feelings of superiority and lower the self worth of others for their own personal gain
5. They like to start arguments whether it is on politics, philosophy, religion or science, but it ends up backfiring on them due to only retaining snippets of information on these topics, but not the full story, whereas their opponent has been pre-educated before the debate and read multiples books and sources on the topic throughly, thus absolutely thrashing the pseudo-intellectual in a debate. Ultimately never begin a debate on something you know nothing about because people will get the impression thag you're just desperate to flex your knowledge when there probably isn't much of it.
Prima facie intellectual people who are conveniently and absurdly hyperintellectual when it comes to carrying out their interests and suddenly without warning sharply anti-intellectual when it comes to protecting their perceived sources of income, donors/patrons/supporters, inter alia. In other words, a hack.
Example 1)
Abomination Intellectual (i.e. A Hack; Satire of an Intellectual Person): "place A is bad, they killed thousands of people via poisoned toothpicks"
Questioner (i.e. Actual Intellectual Person): "place B who funded your talk killed thousands of people via poisoned straws."
Questioner Thinking: "Why are there so many of these abomination intellectuals, fake people, charlatans? who regulates these people?"
Abomination Intellectual: "The hour is up, thank you for coming to my talk." (i.e. the irony is that neglectful silence is anti-intellectual)
Example 2) Abomination Intellectual: "Give me your money and i'll silence your critics intellectually giving you the space to enjoy your ill gotten gains, while the attention is all on me."
Like word salad but the words coming out of the person speaking actually sound intelligent and enable the speaker to come across as intellectual. Intellectual origami involves sounding intellectual for the sake of sounding intellectual. The speaker will use high profile and scientific sounding words. Think of origami like an intricately folded collection of sharp edges which look impressive, but have much less weight than you’d think.
Paul from Love Is Blind deployed his intellectual origami when speaking or answering any question that production asked him. It would sound impressive, but ultimately it was just a form of intellectual word salad.
An intellectual roast is when you roast someone by proving you're smarter.
"What's 2+2?"
"4. Boom! Intellectual roast!"
When one decides not to call themselves stupid or if your brain isnt working, or the words your saying arent making any sense.
friend 1: Damn my brain isnt working
Friend 2. oh you mean intellectually resting
friend 1: yeah i guess you can say im intellectually resting
To refer to an attractive female in a politically correct manner
Put me on the record as saying Tomi is our leading intellectual
1. A phrase describing the act of habitually reserving judgment regarding people, places, and/or situations;
2. Avoiding forming opinions and conclusions which one is not required or beholden to form.
Ex. "It is preferable to exercise intellectual instinct if you don't have a reason not to."