Make Your Point: SAPIENCE

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pronounce SAPIENCE:

SAY pee yunts

connect this word to others:

Hands up if you find it arrogant that we named our own species Homo sapiens, Latin for "wise human."

But that's people for you. Especially compared to other animals, we love to think of ourselves as wise; smart; shrewd; astute; intelligent, jud______ ("reasonable, especially when it comes to putting limits or restraints on things"); sag____us ("smart in a practical way, like a hunting dog who can quickly sniff out a correct trail"); and sapient ("wise, deeply insightful").

Let's explore that last synonym, sapient, and its noun, sapience. They're especially useful for being sarcastic and calling out arrogance.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

The word "sapience" traces back through French to a Latin word for "wisdom, or intelligence."

We've used it in English since the 1300s as a formal, serious synonym of "wisdom," or in other words, the power to understand things deeply or use very good judgment.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the uncountable kind: "Some poets are known for their sapience."

Other forms:

The adjective is "sapient," as in "Ocean Vuong's poems are tender and sapient."

And the adverb is "sapiently," which often sounds extra-sarcastic, like when Adam Gopnik described the "sapiently bored students at a fine writer's retreat."

how to use it:

Pick the rare word "sapience" instead of "wisdom," "insight," and "intelligence" when you need to sound academic, extremely formal, or haughty and sarcastic.

You might talk about someone's sapience, or say that someone says or does something with sapience.

To use the adjective, talk about sapient advice, comments, people and personalities, and so on. "It's hard to write anything remotely sapient in a sympathy card." "It's creepy when AI chatbots start to sound sapient."

examples:

"'Well,' she said, with an air of profound sapience, 'no man ever talks to a woman for two hours unless he keeps saying the same thing all the time.'"
— Edgar Saltus, Eden: An Episode, 1888

"One of the things often heard about impeachment is that it is essentially a political process. This seeming truth is said with a kind of sleepy sapience, as though only the naïve or the self-deluded would imagine anything otherwise."
— Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 27 November 2019

has this page helped you understand "sapience"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "sapience" without saying "wisdom" or "perception."

try it out:

Although we've talked a lot about how "sapience" is great for sarcasm, it's great for speaking in earnest, too.

Think back to a book, a show, or a movie that you love, and talk about the character who, in your opinion, speaks and acts with the most sapience. What's something this character says or does that's especially sapient?

I'm leaning toward Gandalf:

"Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till."
— J. R. R. Tolkien,The Return of the King, 1955

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Eddie Izzardisms!"

Consider a quote from Eddie Izzard's delightful stand-up comedy, and decide which of three given terms you can most easily connect it to. You can see my suggested answer by scrolling to the bottom of the issue. But yours doesn't need to match mine.

Try this one today:

"My father was a beekeeper before me. His father was a beekeeper. I want to follow in their footsteps. And their footsteps were like this: [running] AAAAAAAH! I'm covered in beeeeees!"

Alarums and excursions, bread and circuses, or hammer and tongs?

review this word:

1. The opposite of SAPIENT could be

A. HASTY.
B. IGNORANT.
C. SELFISH.

2. Why do we associate _____ with sapience? Possibly because of their _____.

A. dogs .. boundless energy and their fierce loyalty to humans
B. weasels .. constant appearance as thieves and villains in cartoons
C. owls .. serious, thoughtful faces and their ability to see through the darkness

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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