brainiac

[brey-nee-ak]Slang.

noun

a highly intelligent person.

Origin of brainiac

from Brainiac, a superintelligent, villainous alien in the Superman comics, probably brain + (man)iac

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for brainiac

Contemporary Examples of brainiac

Except for maybe his brainiac wife… but she could do better anyway.
All Your Internet Boyfriends Are Taken: Gosling, Cumberbatch, and now Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Melissa Leon
January 3, 2015
“Scientists know now that being a brainiac is not so much about IQ but about executive function,” Golinkoff asserts.
15 Signs You'll Raise a Genius
Anneli Rufus
October 24, 2011

British Dictionary definitions for brainiac

brainiac

noun

informal a highly intelligent person

Word Origin for brainiac

C20: from a super-intelligent character in an American comic strip

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for brainiac

"very smart person," 1982, U.S. slang, from brain (n.) + ending from ENIAC, etc. Brainiac also was the name of a comic book villain in the Superman series and a do-it-yourself computer building kit, both from the late 1950s, and the word may bear traces of either or both of these.