sapient

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French sapient, or its source, Latin sapiēns. Doublet of savant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈseɪpɪənt/
• IPA^(key): /ˈseɪpiənt/

Adjective

sapient (comparative more sapient, superlative most sapient)

1. Attempting to appear wise or discerning.
   • 1890, Henry James, The Tragic Muse.

     "... A man would blush to say to himself in the darkness of the night the things he stands up on a platform in the garish light of day to stuff into the ears of a multitude whose intelligence he pretends that he esteems.... Therefore, why be sapient and solemn about it, like an editorial in a newspaper?" Nick added, with a smile.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 217:

     In Europe I had been told by sapient academics that there wasn't really any class system in the United States: well, you couldn't prove that by the conditions in California's agribusinesses, or indeed its urban factories.

2. (dated) Possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, Scene 6, [1]

     [To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer. / [To the Fool] Thou, sapient sir, sit here.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9, lines 439-43, [2]

     Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned / Or of revived Adonis, or renowned / Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son, / Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king / Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.

   • 1839, "Bewitched Butter" in W. B. Yates (ed.), Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (1892), Barnes & Noble, 2009, p. 295,

     She had five or six cows; but it was observed by her sapient neighbors that she sold more butter every year than other farmers' wives who had twenty.

3. (chiefly science fiction) Of a species or life-form, possessing intelligence or self-awareness.
   • 1962 January, Henry Beam Piper, “Naudsonce”, in Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction, volume 68, number 5, page 9:

     It was inhabited by a sapient humanoid race, and some of them were civilized enough to put it in Class V, and Colonial Office doctrine on Class V planets was rigid.

Synonyms

• (possessing wisdom): See Thesaurus:wise
• (possessing self-awareness): See Thesaurus:self-aware

Related terms

• homo sapiens
• insipid
• insipience
• insipient
• sapid
• sapience
• sapiens
• sapiently
• savant
• savvy

 

Translations

possessing wisdom and discernment

• Danish: intelligent (da), vis (da)
• Greek: σοφός (el) (sofós)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Persian: فرزانه (fa) (farzâne)
• Russian: разу́мный (ru) (razúmnyj)

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “sapient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 169.
• Template:R:OED SF

Noun

sapient (plural sapients)

1. (chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.
   • 1960, Philip José Farmer, A Woman a Day, page 30:

     It seemed to him a possibility that the Cold War Corps of March might have contacted hitherto unknown sapients on some just discovered interstellar planet.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:sentient

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “sapient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 169.
• Template:R:OED SF
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “sapient”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• painest, panties, patines, peisant, pianets, pinates, ptisane, spinate

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) sapient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of sapiō

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Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sapiēns. Compare savant

Adjective

sapient m (oblique and nominative feminine singular sapient or sapiente)

1. wise; sapient

Declension

Declension of sapient

Number	Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Subject	sapiens, sapienz, sapients	sapiente	sapient
	Oblique	sapient			sapiente	sapient
Plural	Subject	sapient	sapientes		sapient
	Oblique	sapiens, sapienz, sapients			sapientes	sapient

Related terms

• sapience
• sapientement

Descendants

• → English: sapient
• French: sapient

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sapiēns, sapientis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsa.piˈent/

Adjective

sapient m or n (feminine singular sapientă, masculine plural sapienți, feminine and neuter plural sapiente)

1. (rare) learned, wise

Declension

Declension of sapient

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	sapient		sapientă	sapienți	sapiente
	definite	sapientul		sapienta	sapienții	sapientele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	sapient		sapiente	sapienți	sapiente
	definite	sapientului		sapientei	sapienților	sapientelor

Synonyms

• înțelept, savant, învățat, doct, erudit

Related terms

• sapiență