Woe from wit: Intellect in Russian linguistic world image.

This paper deals with the semantics of words and expressions related to the intellectual sphere and expressing a negative evaluation, such as umnik, umnichat’, umstvovat’, umstvovaniya, mudrstvovat’, mudrit’, zaumnyi, mudrenyi, vysokolobyi, vseznaika, botanik, professor kislykh shchei, knizhnyi cherv’. The negative evaluation of the intellectual sphere is most often caused by the following naïve ideas reflected in the Russian language: 1) the demonstration of intellect, as a rule, is estimated as a manifestation of high self-esteem and the violation of the principle of modesty (vseznaika, umnik, umnichat’); 2) the intellectual sphere and intellectual processes (and their products) are often associated with a whole complex of negative concepts: unnecessary complexity, the difficulty to understand, the need to make efforts for a long time (umstvovat’, mudrenyi, zaumnyi); 3) intellectual activity is often associated with emotional disability (mudrstvovat’, umnik); 4) the mind can be estimated as a demonstration of confidence in one’s privilege and pushing the person to the violation of ethical and legal norms (umnik 1.2), as well as forcing him to behave overconfidently and to show superfluous initiative (umnichat’ 2).