sapiens

See also: Sapiens

English

Etymology

From translingual Homo sapiens, from Latin sapiēns, present active participle of sapiō (“discern, be capable of discerning”).

Noun

sapiens (plural sapiens or sapientes)

1. A human being (Homo sapiens).
   • 2000, William H. Libaw, How we got to be human: subjective minds with objective bodies, page 277:

     The earliest sapiens were gatherers, scavengers, and hunters of food.

   • 2005, Sherwood L. Washburn, Classification and Human Evolution, page 335:

     Even if we assume that the rate of change was slow and the evolving population large, we must still assume that sapiens was rather isolated.

Anagrams

• Espinas, Pesinas, pansies, senpais

Latin

Etymology

Present active participle of sapiō (“I discern”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈsa.pi.ens/, [ˈs̠äpiẽːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsa.pi.ens/, [ˈsäːpiens]

Participle

sapiēns (genitive sapientis, comparative sapientior, superlative sapientissimus, adverb sapienter); third-declension one-termination participle

1. discerning, wise, judicious

   Synonyms: callidus, prūdēns, sollers

   Antonyms: īnsipiēns, stupidus, fatuus, stultus, āmēns, dēmēns

2. discreet
3. (masculine substantive) a wise man, sage, philosopher
   • (Can we date this quote?) Anonymous

     Sapiens nihil affirmat quod non probat ― a wise man asserts nothing which he does not (ap)prove

Declension

Third-declension participle.

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	sapiēns			sapientēs	sapientia
Genitive	sapientis			sapientium
Dative	sapientī			sapientibus
Accusative	sapientem	sapiēns		sapientēs sapientīs	sapientia
Ablative	sapiente sapientī1			sapientibus
Vocative	sapiēns			sapientēs	sapientia

¹When used purely as an adjective.

Derived terms

• barbā tenus sapiēns

Descendants

• → English: sapient, savant
• Italian: saccente, → sapiente
• Old French: savant, sachant, sapient (borrowed)
  • French: savant, sachant, sapient (borrowed)
• Piedmontese: sapient
• → Portuguese: sapiente
• Romanian: sapient
• Sicilian: saccenti, → sapienti
• → Spanish: sapiente
• Translingual: Homo sapiens

References

• “sapiens”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sapiens”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sapiens in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• sapiens in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a wise man is in no way affected by this: hoc nihil ad sapientem pertinet
    
  • it is incompatible with the nature of a wise man; the wise are superior to such things: hoc in sapientem non cadit
    
  • what do we understand by 'a wise man': quem intellegimus sapientem?
    

Middle English

Noun

sapiens

1. Alternative form of sapience