/ˈsæv.i/
OriginAlteration of save, sabi (“to know”) (in English-based creoles and pidgins), from Portuguese sabe (“[she/he] knows”), from saber (“to know”), from Latin sapere (“to taste; to know”). First appears c. 1785 in a dictionary by Francis Grose, as a noun, “practical sense, intelligence”; also a verb, “to know, to understand”. The adjective is first recorded 1905, from the noun.
- informalShrewd, well-informed and perceptive.
“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.”
- informalTo understand.
“He's probably a perfect technician as a surgeon, but he knows you get only what you grab. Think of the years it's taken me to learn what he savvied all the time!”
- informal, uncountableShrewdness.
Formssavvier(comparative) · savviest(superlative) · savvies(present, singular, third-person) · savvying(participle, present) · savvied(participle, past) · savvied(past)