savvy

English

Etymology

Alteration of save, sabi (“to know”) (in English-based creoles and pidgins), from Portuguese sabe (“[she/he] knows”), from saber (“to know”), from Latin sapere (“to taste; to know”). First appears c. 1785 in a dictionary by Francis Grose, as a noun, “practical sense, intelligence”; also a verb, “to know, to understand”. The adjective is first recorded 1905, from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsæv.i/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ævi

Adjective

savvy (comparative savvier, superlative savviest)

1. (informal) Shrewd, well-informed and perceptive.
   • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     That such a safe adaptation could come of The Hunger Games speaks more to the trilogy’s commercial ascent than the book’s actual content, which is audacious and savvy in its dark calculations.

Synonyms

• canny

Derived terms

• genre-savvy
• media-savvy
• savviness
• tech-savvy

Related terms

• Homo sapiens
• insipid
• insipience
• insipient
• sapid
• sapience
• sapiens
• sapient
• savant

 

Translations

well-informed and perceptive

• Arabic: الدهاء (aldaha')
• Bulgarian: знаещ (bg) (znaešt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 精明能幹的 / 精明能干的 (jīngmíng nénggàn de)

• Czech: vnímavý m, důvtipný (cs) m, řídící se zdravým rozumem, chytrý (cs) m
• Finnish: fiksu (fi) (informal), älykäs (fi)
• French: futé (fr) (informal), malin (fr)
• German: clever (de), klug (de), schlau (de)
• Italian: astuto (it), furbo (it)
• Persian: زرنگ (fa) (zerang)
• Portuguese: sábio (pt), sabido (pt)
• Russian: (participles, in Russian a verb used instead, e.g. смыслить в ..., соображать в ....) смы́слящий (ru) (smýsljaščij), сообража́ющий (ru) (soobražájuščij), продви́нутый (ru) (prodvínutyj), (colloquial) куме́кающий (ru) (kumékajuščij), (colloquial) вруба́ющийся (ru) (vrubájuščijsja)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: умјешан, информиран

  Roman: umješan (sh), informiran (sh)

• Spanish: sabio (es), canchero (es), sabido (es), sabedor (es), avezado (es), conocedor (es)
• Swedish: smart (sv), slug (sv), klok (sv)
• Turkish: akıllı (tr), kurnaz (tr)

Verb

savvy (third-person singular simple present savvies, present participle savvying, simple past and past participle savvied)

1. (informal) To understand.
   • 1925, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXIV, in Arrowsmith, Harcourt Brace & Co., page 280:

     He's probably a perfect technician as a surgeon, but he knows you get only what you grab. Think of the years it's taken me to learn what he savvied all the time!

Translations

(informal) to understand

• Bulgarian: схващам (bg) (shvaštam)
• Czech: rozumět (cs) impf, dovtípit se pf
• Finnish: tajuta (fi), hiffata (fi), kässätä (fi)
• French: piger (fr)
• German: kapieren (de), schnallen (de), verstehen (de)
• Persian: گرفتن (fa) (gereftan)
• Portuguese: saber (pt)
• Turkish: idrak etmek (tr), kavramak (tr), çakmak (tr) (informal)

Noun

savvy (uncountable)

1. (informal) Shrewdness.

   Synonym: savviness

References

• “savvy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Chinese Pidgin English

Alternative forms

• sarby

Etymology

From Macau Pidgin Portuguese 撒㗑 (saat3 baai3), 撒備 (saat3 bi6), 散拜 (saan2 baai3), from Portuguese sabe.

Verb

savvy

1. to know
   • 1860, The Englishman in China, London: Saunders, Otley, and Co., page 44:

     My no sarby.

     I don’t know.

2. to understand

References

• Gow, W. S. P. (1924) Gow’s Guide to Shanghai, 1924: A Complete, Concise and Accurate Handbook of the City and District, Especially Compiled for the Use of Tourists and Commercial Visitors to the Far East, Shanghai, page 108: “Savvy: (Portuguese) know; understand; No savvy ? Do you not understand ?”