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頭{あたま}がいい means smart. Another pronunciation of 頭 is かしら.

賢{かしこ}い also means smart. Are 賢い and 頭 related? Perhaps as the abbreviation of かしらがいい?

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  • The meaning of 頭がいい derives as much from いい as from 頭. And the かしら reading is only valid as a suffix. Commented yesterday
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    @KarlKnechtel The かしら reading can be used alone to mean "head". In the show 孤独のグルメ, 3-2, 12:26, when the actor is reading the menu of a restaurant that serves offal, he said: "ホルモン、モツ、子袋、ハツ、胃にタン{tongue}に頭{かしら}まで。" Commented yesterday
  • かしらがいい would mean something different than "smart" Commented yesterday
  • I do not think that かしこい is abbreviation of かしらがいい. However there is a ら suffix in words such as こちら, そちら, あちら, どちら. It is not impossible that this suffix would be present also in かしら, which would then be derived from a long-obsolete かし element. And かしこい maybe was independently derived from that かし element (if it existed). Both kasira and kasiko- are supposedly attested in Old Japanese (8th century), the oldest attested stage of Japanese, so possible derivation of these words would have occurred earlier. This is pure speculation, and they could just as well be completely unrelated. Commented yesterday

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かしこい in the sense of "intelligent" is derived not from かしら but from 畏し (かしこし), an adjective meaning "awe-inspiring" or "formidable". Originally, かしこし was used for god-like beings, but the range of what it can represent gradually expanded. Over time, it came to be used for people of noble status and for those who were intellectually gifted. You can check the wide range of meanings in this dictionary entry. Today, かしこい is no longer used in the sense of "awe-inspiring", but the verb かしこまる retains some of its original sense.

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