sapient

From Middle English sapient, from Old French sapient, or its source, Latin sapiēns. Doublet of savant.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈseɪpɪənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈseɪpiənt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

sapient (comparative more sapient, superlative most sapient)

1. Attempting to appear wise or discerning.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:wise

   • 1890, Henry James, The Tragic Muse:

     "... 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?" Nick added, with a smile.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 217:

     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.

2. (dated) Possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.
   • 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]:

     [To Edgar] Come ſit thou here moſt learned Iuſtice / [To the Fool] Thou ſapient ſir ſit here, […]

   • 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; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 439–443:

     Spot more delicious then thoſe Gardens feign’d / Or of reviv’d Adonis, or renownd / Alcinous, hoſt of old Laertes Son, / Or that, not Myſtic, where the Sapient King / Held dalliance with his faire Egyptian Spouſe.

   • 1839, "Bewitched Butter" in W. B. Yates (ed.), Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (1892), Barnes & Noble, 2009, p. 295,

     She had five or six cows; but it was observed by her sapient neighbors that she sold more butter every year than other farmers' wives who had twenty.

3. (chiefly science fiction) Of a species or life-form, possessing intelligence or a high degree of self-awareness.

   Synonyms: sentient; see also Thesaurus:self-aware

   • 1935 February, Bob Olsen, “Who Deserves Credit?”, in Amazing Stories, volume 9, number 10, page 81:

     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.

   • 1962 January, Henry Beam Piper, “Naudsonce”, in Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction, volume 68, number 5, page 9:

     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.

   • 1970, Larry Niven, Ringworld, page 72:

     Nessus had not spoken mockingly; but Speaker reacted with rage. “What sapient being would not fear such power?”

• sentient

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “sapient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 169.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2025), “sapient adj.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.

sapient (plural sapients)

1. (chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.
   • 1960, Philip José Farmer, A Woman a Day, page 30:

     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.

• See Thesaurus:sentient

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “sapient”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 169.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2025), “sapient n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sapient”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• painest, panties, pantsie, patines, peisant, pianets, pinates, ptisane, spinate

sapient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of sapiō

Borrowed from Latin sapiēns. Compare savant.

sapient m (oblique and nominative feminine singular sapient or sapiente)

1. wise; sapient

• sapience
• sapientement

• → English: sapient
• French: sapient

Borrowed from Latin sapiēns, sapientis.

• IPA^(key): /ˌsa.piˈent/

sapient m or n (feminine singular sapientă, masculine plural sapienți, feminine and neuter plural sapiente)

1. (rare) learned, wise

   Synonyms: înțelept, savant, învățat, doct, erudit

• sapiență