different between sapient vs sagacity

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French sapient, or its source, Latin sapi?ns. Doublet of savant.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?se?p??nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?se?pi?nt/

Adjective

sapient (comparative more sapient, superlative most sapient)

1. Attempting to appear wise or discerning.
   • 1890, Henry James, The Tragic Muse.

     "... A man would blush to say to himself in the darkness of the night the things he stands up on a platform in the garish light of day to stuff into the ears of a multitude whose intelligence he pretends that he esteems.... Therefore, why be sapient and solemn about it, like an editorial in a newspaper?" Nick added, with a smile.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 217:

     In Europe I had been told by sapient academics that there wasn't really any class system in the United States: well, you couldn't prove that by the conditions in California's agribusinesses, or indeed its urban factories.

2. (dated) Possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, Scene 6, [1]

     [To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer. / [To the Fool] Thou, sapient sir, sit here.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9, lines 439-43, [2]

     Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned / Or of revived Adonis, or renowned / Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son, / Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king / Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.

   • 1839, "Bewitched Butter" in W. B. Yates (ed.), Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (1892), Barnes & Noble, 2009, p. 295,

     She had five or six cows; but it was observed by her sapient neighbors that she sold more butter every year than other farmers' wives who had twenty.

3. (chiefly science fiction) Of a species or life-form, possessing intelligence or self-awareness.

Synonyms

• (possessing wisdom): See Thesaurus:wise
• (possessing self-awareness): See Thesaurus:self-aware

Related terms

Translations

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007) , “sapient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, ?ISBN, page 169
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2021) , “sapient adj.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.

Noun

sapient (plural sapients)

1. (chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:sentient

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007) , “sapient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, ?ISBN, page 169
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2021) , “sapient n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “sapient”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• painest, panties, pantsie, patines, peisant, pianets, pinates, ptisane, spinate

Latin

Verb

sapient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of sapi?

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sapi?ns. Compare savant

Adjective

sapient m (oblique and nominative feminine singular sapient or sapiente)

1. wise; sapient

Declension

Related terms

• sapience
• sapientement

Descendants

• ? English: sapient
• French: sapient

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sapi?ns, sapientis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sa.pi?ent/

Adjective

sapient m or n (feminine singular sapient?, masculine plural sapien?i, feminine and neuter plural sapiente)

1. (rare) learned, wise

Declension

Synonyms

• în?elept, savant, înv??at, doct, erudit

Related terms

• sapien??

English

Etymology

sagac(ious) +? -ity, from French sagacité, from Latin sag?cit?s (“sagaciousness”), from sag?x (“of quick perception, acute, sagacious”), from s?gi? (“I perceive by the senses”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s???æs?ti/, /s???æs?ti/

Noun

sagacity (usually uncountable, plural sagacities)

1. (obsolete) Keen sense of smell.
   • 1607, Edward Topsell, The History of Four-footed Beasts, Serpents, and Insects, London: G. Sawbridge et al., 1658, p. 352,^[1]

     […] this Beast [the Ichneumon] is not only enemy to the Crocodile and Asp, but also to their Egs, which she hunteth out by the sagacity of her nose, and so destroyeth them […]

2. The quality of being sage, wise, or able to make good decisions; the quality of being perceptive, astute or insightful.
   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume 3, Chapter 15,^[2]

     Young ladies have great penetration in such matters as these; but I think I may defy even your sagacity, to discover the name of your admirer.

   • 1904, M. P. Shiel, The Evil That Men Do, London: Ward, Lock & Co., Chapter ,^[3]

     Immediately after the meal, when he was alone again, he set to work to examine Drayton’s papers, of which there lay quite a mass on the table near him and, leaning toward the lamp on his elbow, he weighed the meaning of each with a certain sideward sagacity of gaze, a sagacity that smiled in its self-sureness.

     Swiss Family Robinson- "....near the mouth of a creek, towards which all our geese and ducks betook themselves; and I, relying on their sagacity, followed in the same course."

   Synonyms: sagaciousness, wisdom

Related terms

• sagacious

Translations

Further reading

• sagacity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sagacity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• sagacity at OneLook Dictionary Search