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What does ‘too clever by half’ mean?

What does the phrase “too clever by half” mean and where did it come from?

“Too clever by half” means “too smart for your own good,” reports The Dictionary of Cliches.

The phrase illustrates an odd British convention regarding the word half: In the plural, “by halves,” it means incomplete or done only halfway; in the singular, “by half,” it means considerably, or a great deal, according to a New York Times language column by the late William Safire.

Thus, “too clever by half” means way too smart, to the extent that the smarty outwits himself. It was coined, according to Safire, by British writer George J. Whyte-Melville in his 1858 novel, The Interpreter.

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