savvy
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Alteration of save, sabi (“know”) (in English-based creoles and pidgins), from Portuguese or Spanish sabe (“[she/he] knows”), or from Catalan savi (“wise, very learned”) from saber (“to know”), from Latin sapere (“taste, know”). First appears c. 1785 in a dictionary by Francis Grose, as a noun, “practical sense, intelligence”; also a verb, “to know, to understand”; West Indies pidgin borrowing of Catalan savi (“wise or knowlegeable”), Portuguese (ele) sabe (“he knows”), French savez(-vous) (“do you know”), or Spanish (usted) sabe (“you know”), all from the same Latin source (see also sapient). The adjective is first recorded 1905, from the noun. Savvy is phonetically more consistent with savi in Catalan or sabe in Portuguese, than sabe in Spanish or savez in French. Grammatically as well, savi in Catalan is both a noun and an adjective, while sabe and savez are just verb conjugations for “he/she knows” and “you know”, respectively.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]savvy (comparative savvier, superlative savviest)
- (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
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
Verb
[edit]savvy (third-person singular simple present savvies, present participle savvying, simple past and past participle savvied)
- (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
[edit]
|
Noun
[edit]savvy (uncountable)
- (informal) Shrewdness.
- Synonym: savviness
References
[edit]- “savvy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Chinese Pidgin English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Macau Pidgin Portuguese 撒㗑 (saat3 baai3), 撒備 (saat3 bi6), 散拜 (saan2 baai3), from Portuguese sabe.
Verb
[edit]savvy
- to know
- 1860, The Englishman in China, London: Saunders, Otley, and Co., page 44:
- My no sarby.
- I don’t know.
- to understand
References
[edit]- 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 ?”
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *seh₁p-
- English terms derived from Portuguese
- English terms derived from Spanish
- English terms derived from Catalan
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from French
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ævi
- Rhymes:English/ævi/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English informal terms
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- Chinese Pidgin English terms borrowed from Macau Pidgin Portuguese
- Chinese Pidgin English terms derived from Macau Pidgin Portuguese
- Chinese Pidgin English terms derived from Portuguese
- Chinese Pidgin English lemmas
- Chinese Pidgin English verbs
- Chinese Pidgin English terms with quotations