smart-aleckismn.
/smɑːtˈalɪkɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˌsmɑrdˈæləkɪz(ə)m/ colloquial (originally U.S.).
= smart-aleckry n.; (also) an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > would-be clever person > [noun] > condition of
smart-aleckism1886
smart-aleckry1918
clever-cleverness1957
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > would-be clever person > [noun] > condition of > instance of
smart-aleckism1886
1886 Atchison (Kansas) Daily Champion 28 May 2/3 There are two or three other papers in the Missouri and Kansas Association guilty of this small Smart Aleckism, which is a violation of good breeding as well as the rules of the Association.
a1898 W. C. Brann Brann Iconoclast (1899) II. 250 I trust that..she will reserve the sacriligious [sic] scene for her own beloved Paree, instead of bringing it hither to wreck what little reverence yet remains in this, the home of Smart Alecism, the Gibraltar of Infidelity.
1938 Scrutiny 6 iv. 400 Composers seek consolation for their lack of popular appreciation in the formation of cliques and the cultivation of a pert smart-alecism.
1962 Listener 21 June 1091/3 A sophisticated bit of smart-aleckism like the ‘nine-minute opera’ Introductions and Goodbyes.
2000 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Little Rock, Arkansas) (Nexis) 14 May e1 The oral historian of the family, Aunt Hattie is one of the main sources of all my ‘old folks' sayings’ and written smart-aleckisms.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1886