Photo credit: AP
I’ve known the word ‘brainy‘ for a while and heard it yet again today. This is an informal way of describing someone who is very intelligent. I mostly use it to talk about my brother.
Some examples:
– As Metallica once said, let it be written. It’s not the students who love Radiohead that are likely to be the brainiest in their University but the kid down the hall with the Tool t-shirt and a fixation with the floor (The Guardian).
– In many ways manufacturers did brilliantly in the decade before the recession of 2008/9, given that the brightest and brainiest young talent was going into the City and strong sterling, buoyed up by the strength of financial services, made British exports expensive (BBC).
– In spite of emancipation, the feminist movement, gender equality, staunch efforts to avoid gender-stereotyping, men still prefer to marry women who are not too brainy (The Guardian).
Confessions of the Linguistic Spy 