savvy
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Alteration of save, sabi (“know”) (in English-based creoles and pidgins), from Portuguese or Spanish sabe (“[she/he] knows”), from saber (“to know”), from Latin sapere (“to be wise”).
1785, as a noun, “practical sense, intelligence”; also a verb, “to know, to understand”; West Indies pidgin borrowing of French savez(-vous) (“do you know”) or Spanish sabe (usted) (“you know”), both from Vulgar Latin *sapere, from Latin sapere (“be wise, be knowing”) (see sapient). The adjective is first recorded 1905, from the noun.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
savvy (comparative savvier, superlative savviest)
- (informal) Shrewd, well-informed and perceptive.
- 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[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.
- 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[1]
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
well-informed and perceptive
|
Verb[edit]
savvy (third-person singular simple present savvies, present participle savvying, simple past and past participle savvied)
- (informal) To understand.
Translations[edit]
(informal) to understand
Interjection[edit]
savvy?
- (informal) Do you understand?
Translations[edit]
(informal) do you understand?
Noun[edit]
savvy (uncountable)
Categories:
- English terms derived from Portuguese
- English terms derived from Spanish
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English informal terms
- English verbs
- English interjections
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
