It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18th.
Today's word is Brainiac, spelled B-R-A-I-N-I-A-C.
Brainiac is a noun.
A Brainiac is a very intelligent person.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Variety by Michaela Z. In this modern,
adult-oriented take on the classic Scooby-Doo franchise,
the series follows the origin story of Velma Dinkley, Kaling, the brainiac of the mystery ink gang.
After a corpses found in her high school, Velma teams up with Daphne, Constance Wu,
Shaggy, Sam Richardson, and Fred, Glenn Howerton, to solve the murder.
As Superman fans know,
Brainiac was the super-intelligent villain in the Action Comics series and its spin-offs.
His name is a portmanteau of Brain and Maniac.
You don't need X-ray vision to see the connection here.
Etymologists think Superman's Braini adversary is the likely inspiration for the common noun,
Brainiac.
The term was not coined right away, though.
The comic book series was launched in 1938, and the character Brainiac debuted in 1958.
But current evidence doesn't show general use of Brainiac to refer to a super-intelligent person until the 1970s.
With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.