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Idiom(s) of the day: smart alec(k)
Variation(s): smart-alecky; smart-aleckry, smart-aleckism
My category (Russian-to-English translation): Положительная или отрицательная оценка (Positive or negative evaluation)
Explanation(s):
Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, 2004 (CCDI):
If you describe someone as a smart alec or a smart aleck, you dislike the fact that they think they are very clever and they always have an answer for everything.
The form ‘aleck’ is the usual spelling in American English. People sometimes spell ‘alec’ and ‘aleck’ with capital initials, as names.
Alec or Aleck is a shortened form of the name Alexander.
You can use smart alec or smart aleck before a noun (also smart-alecky).
Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):
someone who always says clever things or always has the right answer, in a way that is annoying
a person considered irritating because they always have a clever answer to a question; having or showing an irritating, know-all attitude
an irritatingly oversmart person
Babylon (www.babylon.com):
a person who thinks they are very clever and likes to show people this in an annoying way
(A person) displaying ostentatious or smug cleverness.
behaviour characteristic of a smart alec
someone who tries to appear clever or who answers questions in a clever way that annoys other people
an obnoxiously conceited and self-assertive person with pretensions to smartness or cleverness
someone who says clever or funny but rude things that annoy other people because they show a lack of respect
Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:
1. an obnoxiously conceited person. 2. a wise guy.
[1860-65, Amer.; generic use of Aleck, nickname for Alexander]
Translation(s):
CCDI:
Самоуверенный всезнайка, умник; нахальный малый.
Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):
умник; всезнайка; выскочка; нахал; наглец
наглый; развязный, самоуверенный
Babylon (www.babylon.com):
больно умный
Multitran (www.multitran.ru):
хлюст
Multilex (www.multilex.ru):
самоуверенный человек; хлыщ
самоуверенный всезнайка; наглец, нахал; хлыщ
Examples:
CCDI:
They’ve got some smart alec of a lawyer from London to oppose the bail, and by God they are not going to get away with it.
You’ll end up no more than a smart alec and you’re well down that road already.
I hate smart-aleck kids who talk like dictionaries.
Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):
a smart-alec answer
...a fortyish smart-alec TV reporter...
It gripes my balls the way that smart aleck walks around the place like he owns it — Меня бесит, как этот хам разгуливает по дому, будто это его собственность
‘They're just a lot of smart Alecs.’ ‘Flash Harrys,’ suggested Peter. (Suppl) — - Ишь какие щеголи! - Скажи лучше - драные петухи.
Multilex (www.multilex.ru):
I'm gonna give this smart aleck a piece of my mind — Я хочу сказать этому нахалу пару теплых слов
The smart aleck is trying to be funny again — Этот умник снова решил поострить
Some smart aleck has used my toothbrush — Какой-то наглец чистил зубы моей зубной щеткой
The smart alecks that know all the answers get under my skin — Самоуверенные молодые люди, у которых на все есть готовый ответ, действуют мне на нервы
A smart aleck like you ought to have no trouble at all getting his face mashed in — Коли будешь выступать, то запросто получить в морду
Don't be such a smart aleck — Не думай, что ты такой умный
Babylon (www.babylon.com):
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) v4.0:
smart alec colloq. (orig. U.S.).
Also aleck, alick, hyphenated, and with capital initial(s).
[f. smart a. + Alec, dim. of personal name Alexander.]
A would-be clever person; a ‘know-all’; occas., a man who is ostentatiously smart in dress or manner. Also attrib. or as adj.
1865 Carson (Nevada) Appeal 17 Oct. 2/3 Halloa, old smart Aleck—how is the complimentary vote for Ashley? 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West vii. 140, I had the pleasure of seeing at least a score of ‘smart Alecks’ relieved of their surplus cash. 1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin 312 You may talk about‥your Smart Alicks, and your Joe-dandies and daisies. 1902 [see run v. 64 h]. 1904 W. N. Harben Georgians ix. 92 Thar was a smart Alec of a feller from Little Dogtrot over in the mountains. 1934 C. Stead Seven Poor Men of Sydney vi. 184 Rawson, from the Trades Hall, ready, assured, blatant, a political opportunist, whom Joseph called a ‘real smart alec’. 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiog. I. v. 276 Nowhere was there protection from those Smart Alecs, the primary poison of the whole process, who piled up the rents. 1941 B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? xii. 221 He's a smart-aleck. I can see already he thinks he knows more than I do. 1942 C. Barrett On Wallaby x. 202 One smart Alick came to‥offer his services in return for a large tin of pineapple slices. 1956 C. V. Wedgwood Lit. & Historian 9 The imitators of Lytton Strachey managed by their smart-aleck antics to obscure for a long decade what was really valuable in the new approach to biography. 1964 L. Nkosi Rhythm of Violence ii. ii. 33 I'm bored with their smart-aleck talk! 1976 T. Stoppard Dirty Linen 40 Smart alec-paragraphs about innocent tripe-and-onions with tittian voluptuaries? 1979 L. Meynell Hooky & Villainous Chauffeur vii. 99 Smart alec, aren't you? Smart and smug like all you intellectual lot.
Hence smart-alec(k)ism, smart-aleckry; an instance of this; smart-aleckry, behaviour characteristic of a smart alec, ostentatious or smug cleverness; smart-alecky a., characteristic of a smart alec, ostentatiously or smugly clever.
1905 Dialect Notes III. ii. 157 Smart Elecky, impertinent, impudent. ‘He's too Smart Elecky for me.’ 1926 G. J. Nathan House of Satan 6 Ripples of smart-aleckry. 1929 J. B. Priestley Good Companions iii. v. 579, I wouldn't have minded so much if he hadn't been so Smart Alecky about it. 1934 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Aug. 8/7 The futility of those modern writers who mistake smart aleckism for sophistication and vulgarity for art. 1938 Scrutiny VI. iv. 400 His [sc. Fauré's] supreme disregard of public opinion is difficult to parallel in an age in which composers seek consolation for their lack of popular appreciation in the formation of cliques and the cultivation of a pert smart-alecism. 1958 Spectator 5 Sept. 306/2 Brouhaha remains a hodgepodge of smartaleckry aimed‥at the intellectual teddy-boy set. 1962 Listener 21 June 1091/3 A sophisticated bit of smart-aleckism like the ‘nine-minute opera’ Introductions and Goodbyes. 1965 New Statesman 30 Apr. 690/1 The last thing the Hansons go in for is the shrug of the shoulders or the smart-alecism—unless it's at the expense of psychoanalysing critics who‥suggest that Tchaikovsky was‥rather odd. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 10 July 8/3 She now writes regularly for New York magazine, though her cautious, measured manner of speaking doesn't seem to fit that magazine's usually brash, smart-alecky tone. 1981 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Mar. 247/5 The various lists in the book have an air of Christmas competition-setting smart-aleckry.
Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:
British National Corpus (BNC), Mark Davies (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/): smart alec, total 7; smart aleck, total 0
A suited smart alec, riding shotgun on rugby union's suddenly careering shamateur bandwagon, this week told a group of British international players that they should soon be able to charge £1,500 for a solitary interview.
It’s difficult to believe that he was expelled from nursery school at the age of three for being a "smart alec".
The Barbarians were knocking round Britain for 1,000 years or so, beating up each other and generally being barbaric. Their hash was settled by the advent of the Romans who are credited with being cultural, organised and generally smart Alec.
Merton here really plays up his loutish commoner pose: the gloomy tabloid man, violently opposed to Hislop's irritating broadsheet smart alec.
Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Mark Davies (http:// www.americancorpus.org/): smart alec, total 7; smart aleck, total 49
Jack considers what the smart aleck said.
If there's such a thing as a congenital smart aleck, Rachel Mosteller is it.
Then the little smart aleck nearly chokes on the smoke.
What if, instead of a ruler to rap knuckles, your worst nightmare of a teacher had a pistol in her pocket? The occasional incorrigible smart aleck might have ended up in the big principal's office in the sky.
I was the bright schoolgirl, Daddy's little girl also something of a smart aleck, like Daddy himself.
Five years old and already a smart aleck.
And I was being a smart aleck and said,' Who are you going after? "
In her retirement Jane's mother has become a smart aleck.
I could be as big a smart aleck as anyone, but I'd rather make light of things.
He was about to be a smart aleck, but I stopped him dead in his tracks.
Cutting a sideways, smart aleck smile in his cheek. Weaze pulls a gun and shoots Bones.
If I ever got to be a little too much of a smart aleck, my mom and dad would probably just knock me right over and say,' You better shape up, girl.'
The Jesus invented by the Jesus Seminar is a Palestinian smart aleck who sounds like a cynical and sarcastic intellectual.
By 1971 they were starring in the Sonny Cher Comedy Hour, the CBS variety show that brought a jokey, mass-market, safe feminism to TV as Sonny played emasculated buffoon to Cher's smart aleck.
The high point is a clever twist to some of the TV ads, in which smart- alec experts get shown up by excited Pontiac drivers.
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