savvy

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Alteration of save, sabi (know) (in English-based creoles and pidgins), from Portuguese or Spanish sabe ([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)

  1. (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.

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

Verb [edit]

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

  1. (informal) to understand

Translations [edit]

Interjection [edit]

savvy?

  1. (informal) Do you understand?

Translations [edit]

Noun [edit]

savvy (uncountable)

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