clever by half

[Victor Steinbok]

  No, I am not trying to antedate the expression. This is a very minor
observation, with no particular suggestions or conclusions intended.

Watching reruns of an earlier season of Top Chef, I noticed that an
Italian chef kept referring to a cleaver as "clever". It's actually not
particularly surprising considering, for example, "measure". But it's
hard to tell if it's eggcornish or has roots in the Italian of the chef
or is simply an ESL issue.

     VS-)

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