Too clever by half in Wordorigins Archive 15 (07-10/04) Forum

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Too clever by half

Author	Comment
aldiboronti	Too clever by half	Lead	[-]
Posts: 8497 (09/05/04 03:16:17) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Remove this ad Written of a minor politico in the UK and it got me to wondering how old the phrase was and if it was used transpond. Edited to correct a minor miner/minor error. Thanks, skibs, I would hate to have left it standing.
jgorman64	Re: Too clever by half	#1	[-]
Posts: 3698 (09/05/04 04:13:05) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	New York Herald \| 1870-10-08 However, the article has a London dateline being an account of the Doncaster horse races. But the New York editor left it in suggesting that the phrase was known if not well known. It shows up again in 1877 in Fitchburg, Mass.
Skibberoo	Re: a minor change	#2	[-]
Posts: 1648 (09/05/04 04:20:22) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Previous comment withdrawn. Good grace should not go unrewarded! Thanks Faldage, It was untidy of me!
Faldage	Re: Too clever by half	#3	[-]
Posts: 2176 (09/05/04 06:27:39) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Response to withdrawn comment withdrawn to avoid hanging confusion.
ozziemaland	Re: Too clever by half	#4	[-]
Posts: 5545 (09/05/04 10:46:55) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Remove this ad OED2: 1858 G. J. Whyte-Melville Interpreter xli, Too clever by half. Would a lesser-known politico from Newcastle, a spokesperson for the coal industry, be a "miner, minor politico" or a "minor, miner" one?
happydog	Re: Too clever by half	#5	[-]
Posts: 695 (09/05/04 13:30:51) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've never heard a leftpondian use this expression, but I should think that anyone reasonably well read would know it. I'm sure I've seen it used in British detective novels, if not other places as well. For the same meaning, we might say, "Too smart for his/her own good" or the more country flavored "Too smart for his/her britches."
pkapleau	Too clever by 150%	#6	[-]
Posts: 739 (09/05/04 16:10:28) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	For the same meaning, we might say, "Too smart for his/her own good" or the more country flavored "Too smart for his/her britches." I often hear "He out-smarted himself" which bascially has the same meaning.
Dr Techie	Re: Too clever by 150%	#7	[-]
Posts: 9773 (09/05/04 16:48:08) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Remove this ad The Germans have a proverb, Allzu klug ist dumm. (Too clever is stupid.)

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