savvy
English
Etymology
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 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
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈsæ.vi/
- Rhymes: -ævi
Adjective
savvy (comparative savvier, superlative savviest)
- (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.
- 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[1]
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
|
Verb
savvy (third-person singular simple present savvies, present participle savvying, simple past and past participle savvied)
- (informal) To understand.
Translations
Noun
savvy (uncountable)
References
- “savvy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Chinese Pidgin English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Ultimately from Portuguese sabe. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Verb
savvy
- know
- 1860, The Englishman in China, London: Saunders, Otley, and Co., page 44:
- My no sarby.
- I don’t know.
- 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 ?”
- 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
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ævi
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English informal terms
- English verbs
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- Chinese Pidgin English terms derived from Portuguese
- Chinese Pidgin English lemmas
- Chinese Pidgin English verbs
- Chinese Pidgin English terms with quotations