wise man

See also: wiseman

English

Alternative forms

• wiseman

Etymology

From wise + man.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwʌɪzman/

Noun

wise man (plural wise men)

1. A man who is wise.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821:
     , II.3:

     That is the reason, why some say, that the wiseman liveth as long as he ought, and not so long as he can.

   • 1635, John Donne, The Triple Foole:

     But where's that wiseman, that would not be I, / If she would not deny?

   • 2005, "A wise man in Washington", The Economist, 14 Dec.:

     Mr Lieberman is arguably the last surviving example of a peculiar Washington species: the Wise Man who is willing to put party allegiance aside when it comes to big issues such as foreign policy.

2. A man who is a sage or seer.
   • 1989, Keith Bosley, translating Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala, III:

     Steady old Väinämöinen / the everlasting wise man [transl. tietäjä] / was driving along his roads / pacing out his ways / in those glades of Väinö-land / on the Kalevala heaths.

3. A magus or wizard, now especially one of the three biblical magi.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p.174:

     Some of the other charms employed by the wise men had a more tangled pedigree.

Antonyms

• wise woman

Hypernyms

• elder
• mentor
• sage
• seer

Translations

wise man

• French: sage (fr) m
• Irish: fáidh m

• Latvian: gudrinieks m

magus

• French: roi mage m

• Irish: fáidh m

Anagrams

• Weisman, manwise