| 释义 |
sapient, a. and n.|ˈseɪpɪənt|
[a. OF. sapient or ad. L. sapient-em wise, n. wise man, pres. pple. of sapĕre to have a taste or savour, to be sensible or wise.]
A. adj.
1. a. Wise. (A learned synonym, in serious use now only poet.)
1471Ripley Comp. Alch. v. viii. in Ashm. (1652) 150 Of thys Pryncyple spekyth Sapyent Guydo. 1515Barclay Egloges ii. (1570) B v b, Thou haste me saued by councell sapient Out of hell mouth. 1549Compl. Scot. Epist. 5 That maist sapient prince..ihone of loran. 1622Callis Stat. Sewers (1824) 334 In Scripture he is not counted sapient that before he build a house will not first count the charge of it. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 442 Where the Sapient King Held dalliance with his faire Egyptian Spouse. 1809Wordsw. Sonn., ‘Alas! what boots the long laborious quest’, If sapient Germany must lie deprest Beneath the brutal sword. 1868Longfellow Dante's Inferno iv. 149 Another way my sapient Guide conducts me.
b. now usually ironical.
a1763Shenstone Economy i. 3 Nor think some Miser vents his sapient saw. 1784Cowper Task ii. 531 Now tell me, dignified and sapient Sir. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 337 The œconomy which has been introduced by the virtuous and sapient assembly. 1822Lamb Elia, Bks. & Reading, I think I see them at their work—these sapient trouble-tombs. 1886Hall Caine Son of Hagar ii. xvi, Then the group of women at the gate separated with many a sapient comment.
c. Having knowledge of, aware of. rare—1.
1764Grainger Sugar Cane ii. 306 The herds, as sapient of the coming storm..In troops associate.
†2. Used in the orig. sense of L. sapĕre: Having a taste or savour, sapid. Obs.
1599A. Hume Hymns ii. 75 Of euerie substance sapient, the sapor and the taist..the mouth will try in haist.
3. Anthrop. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of modern man, Homo sapiens.
1971Nature 28 May 213/1 At sites in East Africa can be seen evidence of the various stages of human evolution—the older levels have the remains of the australopithecines and the younger levels have, in succession, early hominines and, finally, fully sapient types. 1976Ibid. 5 Aug. 487/1 It [sc. the Ndutu cranium] differs from Swanscombe and Steinheim in its occipital curvature and in that the mastoid of Steinheim is sapient in form.
B. n.
1. [= L. sapiens.] A wise man, sage. In later use only jocularly.
1549Compl. Scot. xvi. 142 Conformand til ane addagia of ane of the seuyn sapientis callit mimus publianus. 1592Chettle Kind-harts Dr. (1841) 38 Mirth, in seasonable time taken, is not forbidden by the austerest sapients. 1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 110 He must be an Antiquary with Nestor: an Historian with Plutarch, and a Sapient with Cato. 1827Scott Two Drovers i, ‘She canna do that’, said another sapient of the same profession.
†2. = sapience. [? A confusion or mis-writing.]
a1400–50Alexander 622 Þan was he lede furthe be-lyfe to lere at þe scole, As sone as to þat sapient him-self was of elde. Ibid. 2526 Þare had I siȝt of þe segg, his sapient [Dubl. MS. sapiens] I herde. |