wisenheimer

Wisenheimer—what a great word. Use it any chance you get.

But if you want to change things up, try wiseacre (which can refer to an actually wise person, but is more commonly applied to someone who’s being wise in the sense of being presumptuous or impertinent).

Perhaps the most obvious synonym for wisenheimer is smart aleck. Such people are often said to have a “smart mouth” or simply a “mouth,” as in You’ve got a real mouth—you better watch it! Such a person might even be called a mouth, as in Don’t be such a mouth, Brad.  

The term wisecracker can be used to refer to someone known for making wisecracks.

The term wise guy can mean the same thing, but it’s often used in a gender-specific way (unlike wisenheimer and its other synonyms).

There are also a few common terms that refer to such a person—they start with smart and wise and end with the same word (assuming you know what we mean).

Wisenheimer and its synonyms are all typically at least mildly negative. Sometimes, you can call such a person a clown or a jokester or a joker, but these aren’t always negative, and they don’t necessarily imply sarcasm or facetiousness.

A more positive way to refer to someone you consider funny is to call them a wit. A perhaps somewhat outdated way of referring to such a person is to call them a card or a wag.

The first records of the word wisenheimer come from around 1915 from the US. It’s sometimes spelled weisenheimer, and an earlier form was wiseheimer. The heimer/enheimer ending comes from surnames that end the same way, such as Eisenheimer and Oppenheimer.

Wisenheimer is extremely informal, and it may sound a bit dated, but it’s still fun to say.

Here are some examples of wisenheimer in a sentence:

• OK, wisenheimer, enough with the smart remarks. 
• We’ve got a real wisenheimer here, folks—he thinks he’s real clever.
• My wisenheimer brother couldn’t stop himself from making a comment right in front of the principal.