Too Clever by Half Means Too Smart for One’s Own Good

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Pavika. I’m calling from San Diego.

Pavika, welcome to the show. How can we help you?

Hi, my question is about a phrase that I heard in a class.

The phrase is, too clever by half.

Now that phrase, I hadn’t heard it before, but I’ve heard the Gujarati version, which is the language we speak at home.

It’s Doddai, which basically means one and a half times clever.

So I was wondering how it works, whether it was originated in England or in India, and what the roots of that phrase are.

Oh, okay. And what is your sense of what that expression means? How would you use it?

Yeah, so my family uses it to tease me. They say I’m doddai. I’m a little bit too clever.

So if I’m saying something, maybe like saying something with a smart mouth, then they tease me for it.

So it’s not necessarily a good thing.

Yeah.

So you’re more clever than you are prudent, maybe.

I think that’s about right.

Yeah, that’s a good question.

So which language did it start in?

I’m happy to hear that it’s in another language.

I wouldn’t know for sure that it started in English, but I suspect that it did start in English because I don’t know of it in any other language except for now these two.

And it has been in English in some form or another, this particular part of it, the by half, for about 400 years.

So the too clever by half is just one iteration of it.

So by half can mean a lot or considerably, and it’s not necessarily negatively.

So as far back as the 1600s, we can find print examples of fairer by half, meaning prettier by half, meaning too pretty or very pretty.

And then we see by the 1830s people being described as too clever by half.

And so my suspicion is that the hundreds of years of British history in India, besides leaving a slew of English speakers there and many other imprints of their culture in the subcontinent, also left this phrase as well.

And then it was borrowed into Gujarati so that some of the 50 million speakers of the language use it.

That’s my suspicion.

Hard to know.

I don’t have any etymological dictionaries of that language, nor do I speak it.

So that’s, but that’s my guess.

Because the imprint of English in the subcontinent is deep and vast and quirky even.

Wow, thank you.

And how do you spell the word that you were using?

So it’s difficult because in English, there is only one letter D.

But in Gujarati, there’s four ways to pronounce the letter D.

And this one uses three of them.

So that’s three different D letters.

I see.

Interesting.

And it means literally what again?

So means one and a half.

And is like clever or good.

So my question is, what are you doing in your family when they call you too clever by half?

You have a quick wit or a smart mouth, or you just get yourself into trouble that you can’t get yourself out of?

Yeah, I think it’s quick wit, smart mouth.

For example, if somebody says something to me and my response is very quick, then it’s like, oh, you’re being zoned by.

So it’s not used, it’s used endearingly and lovingly, but it’s not necessarily a good thing.

Yeah, that’s how it is in English, too.

Well, thank you so much for calling and sharing that information.

It was a delight to talk with you, Babelika.

Take care.

Thank you.

All right.

You too.

Bye-bye.

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