savvy
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 sapiō (“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”), Portuguese (você) sabe (“you know”) or Spanish (usted) sabe (“you know”), all 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.
- 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]
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Verb[edit]
savvy (third-person singular simple present savvies, present participle savvying, simple past and past participle savvied)
- (informal) To understand.
Translations[edit]
Noun[edit]
savvy (uncountable)
References[edit]
- “savvy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
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
- know
- 1860, The Englishman in China, London: Saunders, Otley, and Co., page 44:
- My no sarby.
- I don’t know.
- 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 Latin
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English 2-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ævi
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- English lemmas
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- 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