different between sapience vs wisdom

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French sapience, from Latin sapientia.

Noun

sapience (usually uncountable, plural sapiences)

1. The property of being sapient, the property of possessing or being able to possess wisdom.
   • 1478, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Wife of Bath's Tale" 1195-8, [1]

     Povert is hateful good, and, as I gesse, / A ful greet bringer out of bisinesse; / A greet amender eek of sapience / To him that taketh it in pacience.

   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I, Chapter V, [2]

     As much Experience, is Prudence; so, is much Science, Sapience.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VII, 192-6, [3]

     Mean while the Son / On his great Expedition now appeer'd, / Girt with Omnipotence, with Radiance crown'd / Of Majestie Divine, Sapience and Love / Immense, and all his Father in him shon.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 8, [4]

     Was it that his eccentric unsentimental old sapience, primitive in its kind, saw or thought it saw something which, in contrast with the war-ship's environment, looked oddly incongruous in the Handsome Sailor?

   • 1926, Dorothy Parker, "Ballade at Thirty-Five" in The Collected Poetry of Dorothy Parker, New York: The Modern Library, 1936, p. 60,

     This, a solo of sapience, / This, a chantey of sophistry, / This, the sum of experiments— / I loved them until they loved me.

   • 2009, Robert Brandom, Reason in Philosophy: Animating Ideas

     I then marked out three ways in which we can instead describe and demarcate ourselves in terms of the sapience that distinguishes us from the beasts of forest and field.

French

Etymology

From Middle French sapience, from Old French sapience, borrowed from Latin sapientia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sa.pj??s/

Noun

sapience f (plural sapiences)

1. wisdom, sapience

Related terms

• savoir

Further reading

• “sapience” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French sapience.

Noun

sapience f (plural sapiences)

1. wisdom, sapience

Descendants

• French: sapience

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sapientia.

Noun

sapience f (oblique plural sapiences, nominative singular sapience, nominative plural sapiences)

1. wisdom, sapience

Descendants

• ? English: sapience
• Middle French: sapience
  • French: sapience

English

Alternative forms

• wisedome (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English wisdom, from Old English w?sd?m (“wisdom”), from Proto-Germanic *w?sad?maz (“wisdom”), corresponding to wise +? -dom or wise +? doom (“judgement”). Cognate with Scots wisdom, wysdom (“wisdom”), West Frisian wiisdom (“wisdom”), Dutch wijsdom (“wisdom”), German Weistum (“legal sentence”), Danish/Norwegian/Swedish visdom (“wisdom”), Icelandic vísdómur (“wisdom”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: w?z?d?m, IPA^(key): /?w?zd?m/
• Hyphenation: wis?dom

Noun

wisdom (countable and uncountable, plural wisdoms)

1. (uncountable) An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise.
2. (countable) A piece of wise advice.
3. The discretionary use of knowledge for the greatest good.
4. The ability to apply relevant knowledge in an insightful way, especially to different situations from that in which the knowledge was gained.
5. The ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience, and intuitive understanding.
6. (theology) The ability to know and apply spiritual truths.
   • 1652, Eugenius Philalethes, The Fame and Confe??ion of the Fraternity of…the Ro?ie Cro?s, pages 1–2 of the preface

     Wi?dom…is to a man an infinite Trea?ure, for ?he is the Breath of the Power of God, and a pure Influence that floweth from the Glory of the Almighty; ?he is the Brightne?s of Eternal Light, and an undefiled Mirror of the Maje?ty of God, and an Image of his Goodne?s; ?he teacheth us Soberne?s and Prudence, Righteou?ne?s and Strength; ?he under?tands the Subtilty of words, and Solution of dark ?entences; ?he foreknoweth Signs and Wonders, and what ?hall happen in time to come.

Synonyms

• (ability to make a decision): See Thesaurus:wisdom

Antonyms

• foolishness
• folly

Derived terms

• conventional wisdom
• pearl of wisdom
• wisdomless
• wisdom tooth

Related terms

• wise
• wisehead
• wiseness

Translations

See also

• morality

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English w?sdom. Equivalent to wys +? -dom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wizdo?m/

Noun

wisdom (plural wisdomes)

1. wisdom

Related terms

• unwisdom

Descendants

• English: wisdom
• Scots: wisdom, wysdom

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *w?sad?maz. Cognate with Old Frisian w?sdom, Old Saxon w?sdom, Old High German w?stuom, Old Norse vísdómr. Equivalent to w?s +? d?m.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wi?s?do?m/, [?wi?z?do?m]

Noun

w?sd?m m

1. wisdom

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: wisdom
  • English: wisdom