The Sunday edition of this newspaper had published a letter in which an esteemed reader has raised a very interesting and thought-provoking question. His question is: Who is an intellectual? He has also particularly mentioned the name of a learned person of Assam in this connection, which however is not as important as the basic question as to who an intellectual is. The Oxford Learner's Dictionary has given two explanations or meanings of the word "intellectual" – one is "a person who is well educated and enjoys activities in which they have to think seriously about things" (example: He was a leading intellectual of his day), and the other is usually used before a noun, "connected with or using a person's ability to think in a logical way and understand things (example: intellectual curiosity, an intellectual novel). The Oxford Learner's Dictionary also says that the word's origin lies in late Middle English: from Latin intellectualis, from intellectus 'understanding', from intellegere 'understand', from inter 'between' + legere 'choose'. The Cambridge Dictionary gives three meanings; the first one says it is an adjective, and describes it as "relating to one's ability to think and understand things, especially complicated ideas. The second one says it is a noun, referring to a very educated person whose interests are studying and other activities which involve careful thinking and mental effort (example: She was too much of an intellectual to find popular movies interesting. The third one says – it is relating to the ability to think and understand ideas at a high level, or involving ideas. Yet another dictionary, the Collins Concise Dictionary gives seven meanings – (i) of or relating to the intellect, (ii) appealing to or characteristics of people with a developed intellect, (iii) expressing or enjoying mental activity, (iv) a person who enjoys mental activity and has highly developed taste in art, etc, (v) a person who uses his intellect, that is his capacity for understanding, thinking and reasoning, (vi) a highly intelligent person, and (vii) a person possessing a brilliant mind. Wikipedia on the other hand says – "An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, who may also propose solutions for the normative problems of society, and thus gains authority as a public intellectual." It has been also said that the term intellectual was coined in the English language in the late 19th century, and has since gained a lot of popularity across the globe. While it was initially used as a derogatory or deriding adjective, the 20th century saw the term acquire positive connotations of social prestige. It is however most interesting to note that several important persons have made some very significant remarks on intellectual people. Jean Paul Sartre had said – "The intellectual is someone who meddles in what does not concern him." Noam Chomsky on the other hand had said, "The intellectuals are specialists in defamation, they are basically political commissars, they are the ideological administrators, the most threatened by dissidence."