This is the definition of the word in a dictionary. It is not something we can scientifically measure like temperature or weight, but we adjudicate high or low intellgences subjectivelly.
The scientifical approximation we use in society is the IQ test, which intends to measure what it's creator thought intelligence was. Probably he thought of himself as a very intelligent man and abstained himself from adding things to the test that he could not certainly pass. No, I don't know how to measure intelligence in a fair way either, but I know how do we subconsciously do all the time:
1. We think others are more intelligent when they think alike us. This makes sense, as if we think in a certain way, we probably do because we feel its the more intelligent way to think. But there is another thing that is more determinant:
2. We think others are more intelligent when they talk like us. Subconsciously, we assume that people who babbles our language to be dumber. No matter if its a famous sportsman or a genius inventor, if he speaks like an indian, our subconscious won't assign a great intelligence to them.
The latter point extends to variations of the local accent or slang. Every variation from our own will have a negative connotation attached. No matter if he's got tons of rizz, he's getting -1000 aura just by not speaking how you consider an intelligent person speaks, te lo juro, bro. English is not my first language either, so I'm sure that many of my entries are considered slightly dumber for that reason.
It is known by professional manipulators such as sales agents, spies, publicists or escorts that one of the easiest ways to get complicity with an stranger its to mimic his expressions. We have an innate program in our heads to consider people part of our pack or strangers, in which ethnicity doesn't play a great role, but differences in language do. Pick any tribe of the world, and you will feel more naturally connected to a person there that speaks your language perfectly, than a person of your "tribe" that speaks it partially and with bizarre modisms.
Both points played a part when we accepted the deceiving thought that humans were somehow more intelligent than animals.
1. "Animals are not intelligent because they don't have electricity, playstations and internet". Man. Imagine a lion who stopped hunting because he wants to research computing. Imagine how the pack and ultimatelly nature would treat that dumb lion. We are different beings and we both developed skills to adapt to our natural environments. How many migratory animals would tell we are not intelligent because we cannot tell the north from the south instinctivelly?
Look closely on which animals we have always considered intelligent: we do it because they share some behavior with humans: Bees are intelligent because they build societies. Ravens are intelligent because they steal shiny things. Wolves are intelligent because their complex social structure. Scientist lose their minds assigning intelligence to animals who use tools like dolphins or monkeys, not because it shows intelligence itself, but because we humans do, and its a solution to a problem we solved in our past. Dogs, however, have their asset on the next point.
2. Language. Dogs are considered intelligent because we can communicate with them very efficiently. Some even understand speech, and know how to convey their thoughts to us with ease, even to strangers. Still we considered them one step under us. I wonder if dogs think we are not as intelligent as them when they find out that we cannot read whose shit is that just by smelling it. Because language is not just speech: it is any sort of communication. Everything said in this entry is redoubled in regards body language.
Below these lines, there is the modifiers granted by intelligence in B/X d&d. As you see, only language is affected. And in the case that it affects magical power, it can be made sense of if magic requires you to decode magical languages like latin, runes or communicating with spirits that don't speak the common tongue.
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