Who is the “smart person” that people often use in hyperboles or analogies?

8 comments

1. Aside from Einstein, we usually mention Pico della Mirandola (a late Medieval humanist philosopher, rumored to having been a living encyclopedia) or Leonardo da Vinci (due to his engineering projects).

2. I don’t think we have a go-to “smart person”… The smart people are usually only smart within their own field

   If we want to compare with someone, we compare with a famous person within that specific field.

   So a person who know history would be called “the next [Hans Villius](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Villius)”

   Or someone who knows a lot about plants would be called a “[Carl von Linné](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus)”

   But we do use Einstein in a sarcastic manner; and my guess is that it originate from English media

   …and of course *besserwisser* (“smart ass”)

3. Definitely Einstein. I don’t think there’s anyone else, at least I’ve never heard anyone say “you’re quite the Planck eh” or something like that 😉

4. Einstein or Hawking are the usual ones, or Sherlock if you’re being sarcastic. Most people wouldn’t even have heard of Lomonosov.

5. Tesla is the most frequent go-to smart person I’d say.

6. Certainly Einstein. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything else.

7. Most notably, Einstein. mainly due to western media, I guess.

   As a personal experience? Tesla. I grew up loving to tinker with electricity and electrics/electronics and my dad frequently used to take the piss outta me when I fucked things up, going like ” Settle down, Tesla, don’t burn my house down before I die of old age”

8. We use Einstein or Willie Wortel, but mostly ironic though.

   Willie Wortel is the inventor from the Donald Duck comics and Duck Tales. According to Wikipedia he’s called Gyro Gearloose in English.