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).
1
Formal Possessing discernment and wisdom; learned, wise.
Dated except poetic
[To Edgar] Come ſit thou here moſt learned Iuſtice / [To the Fool] Thou ſapient ſir ſit here, […]c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], signature G3, verso:
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.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [Ff4], verso, lines 439–443:
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What is it but a vain and curious skill, / If sapient Germany must lie deprest, / Beneath the brutal sword?1809 November 16, William Wordsworth, “[Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty. Part Second.] Sonnet X.”, in Poems […], volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], published 1815, →OCLC, page 236:
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.1839, “Bewitched Butter (Queen’s County)”, in W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, editor, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (The Camelot Series), London: Walter Scott, […]; New York, N.Y.: Thomas Whittaker; Toronto, Ont.: W. J. Gage & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, pages 161–162:
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.1867, Dante Alighieri, “Canto IV”, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, transl., The Divine Comedy, volume I (Inferno), Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 26, lines 149–151:
2
Broadly, Derogatory, Ironic Attempting to appear discerning or wise.
Novv tell me, dignified and ſapient ſir, / My man of morals, nurtur'd in the ſhades / Of Academus, is this falſe or true?1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, pages 72–73:
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.1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 337:
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I think I seem them at their work—these sapient trouble-tombs.1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 49:
Then the group of women at the gate separated with many a sapient comment.1887, Hall Caine, chapter XVI, in A Son of Hagar: A Romance of Our Time […], volume II, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, 2nd book (The Coil of the Temptation), page 84:
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?1889–1890, Henry James, chapter VI, in The Tragic Muse […], volume I, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company […], published 7 June 1890, →OCLC, pages 113–114:
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.2010, Christopher Hitchens, “A Second Identity: On Becoming an (Anglo) American”, in Hitch-22: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Twelve, Grand Central Publishing, →ISBN, page 217:
3
Broadly, Rare Followed by of: aware or knowledgeable of.
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.1935 February, Bob Olsen, “Who Deserves Credit?”, in T[homas] O’Conor Sloane, editor, Amazing Stories, volume 9, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Teck Publishing Corporation, →OCLC, stanza I, page 81:
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.1962 January, H[enry] Beam Piper, “Naudsonce”, in John W[ood] Campbell, editor, Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction, volume 68, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →OCLC, page 9; republished in Federation (An Ace Science Fiction Book), New York, N.Y.: Berkley Publishing Group, December 1983, →ISBN, pages 58–59:
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Nessus had not spoken mockingly; but Speaker reacted with rage. "What sapient being would not fear such power?"1970 October, Larry Niven, “Rosette”, in Ringworld, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published January 1976, →ISBN, page 72:
5
Anthropology, Human sciences, Sciences Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Homo sapiens (modern human beings).
6
Obsolete, Rare Having a (good) flavour or taste; sapid.
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).
1
A wise person; a sage.
Archaic except humorous
"She canna do that," said another sapient of the same profession— […]1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I (The Two Drovers), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, pages 299–300:
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.1960, Philip José Farmer, chapter 6, in A Woman a Day (A Galaxy Magazine Prize Science Fiction Selection; Galaxy Novel; number 43; Beacon Book; number 291), New York, N.Y.: Beacon Books, page 30:
3
Anthropology, Human sciences, Sciences A human being of the species Homo sapiens.