sapient
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anthropology
human-sciences
literature
media
publishing
science-fiction
sciences
Etymology: The adjective is derived from Late Middle English sapient (“learned, wise”), from Old French sapient, or from its etymon Latin sapient-, a stem of sapiēns (“(adjective) discerning, judicious, wise; (noun) wise man, sage”), the present active participle of sapiō (“to have a flavour of, taste like; (figurative) to have good taste; to have discernment or sense; to be prudent, sensible, or wise”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁p-, *sep- (“to taste; to try out”). Doublet of savant.
The noun is derived from the adjective, and also influenced by Latin sapiēns (noun) (see above).
Inflected forms:
form: more sapient
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most sapient
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: sapients
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Possessing discernment and wisdom; learned, wise.
pos: adj
tags: formal
examples: [To Edgar] Come ſit thou here moſt learned Iuſtice / [To the Fool] Thou ſapient ſir ſit here, […]
Spot more delicious then thoſe Gardens feign’d / Or of reviv’d Adonis, or renovvnd / Alcinous, hoſt of old Laertes Son [Odysseus], / Or that, not Myſtic, vvhere the Sapient King [Solomon] / Held dalliance vvith his faire Egyptian Spouſe.
What is it but a vain and curious skill, / If sapient Germany must lie deprest, / Beneath the brutal sword?
She had five or six cows; but it was observed by her sapient neighbours that she sold more butter every year than other farmers' wives who had twenty.
Another way my sapient Guide conduct me / Forth from the quiet to the air that trembles; / And to a place I come where nothing shines.
gloss: Attempting to appear discerning or wise.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
derogatory
ironic
examples: Novv tell me, dignified and ſapient ſir, / My man of morals, nurtur'd in the ſhades / Of Academus, is this falſe or true?
VVell! but a leſſening of prodigal expences, and the œconomy vvhich has been introduced by the virtuous and ſapient aſſembly, makes amends for the loſſes ſuſtained in the receipt of revenue.
I think I seem them at their work—these sapient trouble-tombs.
Then the group of women at the gate separated with many a sapient comment.
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?
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.
gloss: Followed by of: aware or knowledgeable of.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
rare
gloss: Of a lifeform or species: possessing intelligence or a high degree of self-awareness.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
examples: When EXPLORATION blazed through space / The first sky-trail to far-flung stars, / And found men, sapient, on Mars, / He gained renown's most honored place.
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.
Nessus had not spoken mockingly; but Speaker reacted with rage. "What sapient being would not fear such power?"
gloss: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Homo sapiens (modern human beings).
pos: adj
gloss: Having a (good) flavour or taste; sapid.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
rare
gloss: A wise person; a sage.
pos: noun
examples: "She canna do that," said another sapient of the same profession— […]
gloss: An intelligent, self-aware being.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: Every since Trausti had shown him the X-rays, Leif had a theory that Halla Dannto was of non-Earth origin. 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, and were using them in the cold war against the Jacks.
gloss: A human being of the species Homo sapiens.
pos: noun
Related words: Homo sapiens
insipid
insipience
insipient
sapid
sapience
sapiens
savant
savvy
Derived words: insapient
nonsapient
sapientize
sapiently
subsapient
Translations: