"Very smart"

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I get this a lot from people but the whole time I thought it meant smarter than average and then my boyfriend says I'm average smart so he didn't mean I was above intelligent when he said it. Now it made me wonder if the whole time people meant regular smart, not above intelligent smart and I have been misinterputing it the whole time.

What do you think "very smart" means?

I think that sometimes "smart" means something other than "intelligent". NTs use it in a lot of different ways. "Very smart" can mean "good idea" or "clean and attractive" (in reference to attire) or "stuck up and sneaky"/"smart-a**" (as in "Don't be smart with me young lady!"). It often refers to a single concept, item, or action, instead of the person in general. It really depends on the context.

Very smart means:

1. STUPID/OBVIOUS(when sarcastic).
2. Good looking(with aesthetics).
3. Fast/Intelligent.

How can you be normal smart?

By pure definition "very smart" implies a high than average inteligence as smart=intelligent and very is an adjective used to intensify the meaning of the word its used in conjunction with. If your boyfriend called you very smart but said he only meant average smartness, then he misused the phrase, you didn't misinterperate it.

Depending on the source, it can sound sarcastic.

sounds like "very clever" to me.

You must have clever ideas. Clever with positive connotations.

If someone thinks you're intelligent they don't say "very smart" they will usually use the word intelligent. It's been used against me when I'm pleading my case --just recently with the Principal of my school. She looked at me and said "I know you're very intelligent." I mishandled something, inadvertently, by overriding the administration--they hate this.

Interestingly, now that I think back, this has been said to me a few times and ALWAYS by a principal or some administrator with authority and it was used to try to snag me--as if my intentions were planned methodically or sneakily, underhandedly. Tragically, each time they were wrong. I am indifferent to the heirarchy of power.

I may be intelligent, seemingly so, but I'm so damn dumb in so many more ways. If I were clever, I'd appear more smart, I think. Maybe not.

sorry for the digression onto myself.

equinn

Smart and intelligent are basically interchangeable words... to be smart is to be intelligent... to be very smart is to be extraordinarily intelligent. "Very" is an adverb which, when attached to an adjective, signals that whatever adjective is being used to describe something is not enough to describe it and thus the "very" intensifies the meaning of the adjective. So, you definitely did not misinterpret it to think that "very smart" means highly intelligent, because that is exactly what it means, objectively.

what a smart a*%.

makes sense from a Webster Dictionary or English Grammar pov. but you're forgetting the all important connotative meaning we assign to the English language.

Smart and intelligent are not exactly interchangeable. Intelligent is high intellect, reasoning power. Smart is clever or quick or witty. Even the word itself is short and quick. Intelligent, on the other hand, is measured and quantifiable and more formally associated with IQ and the ability to problem solve and reflect. Smart is cute. Intelligent is elegance. Elegance is refined. Cute is instant.

You are quite the smart aleck. We are so quick to be smart. We live in a fast, quick, smart society that wants everything fast ordered. Rarely do we use our intellect. It is, after all, much more draining--intellectually speaking. We have to pause and process. I'm guilty of it myself. No time to pause. We are praised for smart thinkin and smart moves. And if we move too slow, pause for too long, the smart ship smartly donned with smart paint and polished teak, sails away with all the smart people aboard.


equinn

Very smart=backhanded compliment.

I think a lot of the time people saying because they think you want a pat on the back for being different. Then again I haven't had all that often.

Having a good wit.

Interesting.