| 释义 |
sagacity|səˈgæsɪtɪ|
[ad. F. sagacité, ad. L. sagācitāt-em, f. sagāc-em sagacious a.: see -ity.]
The quality of being sagacious.
†1. Acute sense of smell. Obs.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 151 marg., What smelling or sagacity in Dogs is. Ibid. 451 This Beast is not onely enemy to the crocodile and Aspe, but also to their Egges, which she hunteth out by the sagacity of her nose. 1677Plot Oxfordsh. 179 Ladies, who commonly have great sagacity in smelling, may hereby be directed in the choice of their Melitæi or Lap-dogs. 1784Cowper Task vi. 616 Some [animals] show that nice sagacity of smell. 1798Pennant Hindoostan II. 36 All this genus are remarkable for their voracity and their sagacity of nostril.
2. Acuteness of mental discernment; aptitude for investigation or discovery; keenness and soundness of judgement in the estimation of persons and conditions, and in the adaptation of means to ends; penetration, shrewdness.
a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII 13 b, Both for age and prudent sagacitie, fatherly, a wyse & a grave personage, which for renuyng of the olde amitie, were commanded [etc.]. 1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Sagacitie, sharpnes of wit; witnesse. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §24 As he had a wonderfull Sagacity in such Reflections, a thousand Difficulties and Dangers occurred to him. 1693J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. 18 Men of skill and sagacity do sometimes foretel futurities. 1743Emerson Fluxions 107 These are the general Rules, but after all, many things must be left to the Sagacity and Invention of the Artist. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest x, She was somewhat surprised at Peter's sagacity. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxviii, Relying on your advice as a man of great sagacity in money matters. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 182 He discerns the signs of the times with a sagacity which to the multitude appears miraculous. 1864Pusey Lect. Daniel (1876) 160 It was beyond human sagacity..to predict the Roman Empire.
b. pl. Sagacious observations.
1866Carlyle Remin. (1881) I. 103 His native sagacities..made him the most delightful of companions. 1891Spectator 13 June 829/1 Who..is always pressing her homely sagacities on the imagination of the young.
3. Of animals: Exceptional intelligence; skill in the adaptation of means to ends.
1555Eden Decades 189 Are there many of such sagacitie and industrye as the lyke is not seene in beastes of greater quantitie. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. iv. 112 Why they placed this invention upon the Bever..might be the sagacitie and wisedome of that animall. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 337 Black cattle..by a natural sagacity, apprehensive of being swept away with the flood. 1759Goldsm. Bee No. 4 The sagacity of some insects. 1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. 134 He had heard much of the sagacity of the beaver in cutting down trees. |