savvy

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English

Etymology

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

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

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

  1. (informal) To understand.

Translations

Noun

savvy (uncountable)

  1. (informal) Shrewdness.
    Synonym: savviness

References

Chinese Pidgin English

Alternative forms

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 ?”
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