savvy
/ˈsæv.i/ · adj
Meaning
- Shrewd, well-informed and perceptive.
- To understand.
- Shrewdness.
Etymology / origin
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.
- sapiō(la)→
- sabe(Portuguese)→
- *seh₁p-(ine-pro)→
- savvy (English)
- Relations: root, der, der
Related words
Descendant words
- saver(Ladino) (cog)
- saber(Spanish) (cog)
Sources
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