savvy

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”).

1785, 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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsæ.vi/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ævi

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

• canny

Derived terms

• genre-savvy
• media-savvy
• savviness
• tech-savvy

Related terms

• Homo sapiens
• insipid
• insipience
• insipient
• sapid
• sapience
• sapiens
• sapient
• savant

 

Translations

well-informed and perceptive

• Arabic: الدهاء (aldaha')
• Bulgarian: знаещ (bg) (znaešt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 精明能幹的／精明能干的 (jīngmíng nénggàn de)

• Czech: vnímavý m, důvtipný (cs) m, řídící se zdravým rozumem, chytrý (cs) m
• Finnish: fiksu (fi) (informal), älykäs (fi)
• French: futé (fr) (informal), malin (fr)
• German: clever (de), klug (de), schlau (de)
• Italian: astuto (it), furbo (it)
• Persian: زرنگ (fa) (zerang)
• Portuguese: sábio (pt)
• Russian: (participles, in Russian a verb used instead, e.g. смыслить в ..., соображать в ....) смы́слящий (ru) (smýsljaščij), сообража́ющий (ru) (soobražájuščij), продви́нутый (ru) (prodvínutyj), (colloquial) куме́кающий (ru) (kumékajuščij), (colloquial) вруба́ющийся (ru) (vrubájuščijsja)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: умјешан, информиран

  Roman: umješan (sh), informiran (sh)

• Spanish: sabio (es)
• Swedish: smart (sv), slug (sv), klok (sv)
• Turkish: akıllı (tr), kurnaz (tr)

Verb

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

1. (informal) To understand.

Translations

(informal) to understand

• Bulgarian: схващам (bg) (shvaštam)
• Czech: rozumět (cs) impf, dovtípit se pf
• Finnish: tajuta (fi), hiffata (fi), kässätä (fi)
• French: piger (fr)
• German: kapieren (de), schnallen (de), verstehen (de)
• Persian: گرفتن (fa) (gereftan)
• Portuguese: saber (pt)
• Turkish: idrak etmek (tr), kavramak (tr), çakmak (tr) (informal)

Noun

savvy (uncountable)

1. (informal) Shrewdness.

   Synonym: savviness

References

• “savvy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Chinese Pidgin English

Alternative forms

• sarby

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 ?”