Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[WhiteScarf]

Dear teacher :

use "a half-wit" to describe a person.
what that means? what's kind of person?

Thank you a lot

[CP]

It means not very smart. We say a person has brains or wits if he or she is smart. Someone who isn't so smart might be called a lame brain, a half-wit, a nit-wit [a nit is a baby mite, a tiny insect, so it must have a pretty small brain indeed], etc.

Not very nice things to say. Anyway, the less intelligent can't help being less smart than you, any more than you can take credit for being more intelligent than they. It's just luck.
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