Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A learned person; a scholar.
- n. An idiot savant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A man of learning or science; one eminent for learning.
Wiktionary
- n. A person of learning; one who is versed in literature or science.
- n. A person eminent for acquirements.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A man of learning; one versed in literature or science; a person eminent for acquirements.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field
Etymologies
- From French savant from Latin sapere. (Wiktionary)
- French, learned, savant, from Old French, present participle of savoir, to know, from Vulgar Latin sapēre, from Latin sapere, to be wise; see sep- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“All the whole human drift, from the first ape-man to the last savant, is but a phantom, a flash of light and a flutter of movement across the infinite face of the starry night.”
“To be sure, a 13 year old, no matter how savant, is not experienced in the ways of the world, and looks like a kid most likely.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Age Discrmination Against Child Prodigy?
“That the gourmand, amiable savant, is pictured as nibbling on a partridge wing (itself related to the arm which raises it to the diner's mouth) au suprême (mark of invested expertise), thus with the expertly prepared food neither completely inside or outside the mouth even as it is consumed, a circumstance that works to prolong the process of eating and its attendant pleasure, emphasizes this ambiguity.”
Economies of Excess in Brillat-Savarin, Balzac, and Baudelaire
“The point, nonchalant savant, is not to eliminate waste but to minimize it as much as possible while keeping other value parameters in mind.”
“An idiot savant is a person with autism that has extraordinary skills in certain domains in spite of cognitive deficiencies in most others.”
“As I and Elizabeth making our departures, Lord Sandwich did bid me join him tomorrow night to hear speak a savant of the Royal Society.”
“To some who had written of him as an advocate of an irreligious science he answered by asserting in an open letter to a friend (published in "Le Bien Public" 17 September, 1886) that he wished to be known as a savant, and at the same time a faithful”
“Another quality which one would be less disposed to look for in the savant is a fine contempt for danger, which is veiled in such modesty that one reads between the lines in order to detect it.”
“On the other side of the savant was a lively talker,”
“Less than Zero to the publishing scandal that was American Psycho, this so called savant has obsessed on the hedonistic decadence of the Greed Decade to the point where he's literally blurred the lines between truth and taboo.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘savant’.
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
-
Naresh_Gre2
convoke, cosset, coterie, declaim, distaff, doff, dovetail, droll, dyspeptic, egress, ersatz, euphemism and 108 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
-
Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
-
-ant
"Ant -- that's like, an animal right? So important ... importbear."
mordant, surfactant, rant, supplant, chant, plant, figurant, currant, flagrant, scant, savant, grant and 1 more...
-
Ideas
brainchild, inspiration, muse, genius, eureka, discovery, intellectual prop..., intangible asset, goodwill, patented, savant, brainiac and 76 more...
-
Sage advice
sage, sage advice, usage, sagebrush, passage, embassage, message, presage, Seven Sages of Rome, runer, massage, corsage and 48 more...
-
man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 481 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
-
to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
-
mkuhl's list
Words I like
zeitgeist, harbinger, maelstrom, epanalepsis, savant, charisma
-
Words
teeter, headlong, reprobate, canard, ersatz, prevaricate, trenchant, minatory, fatuous, stultify, vitiate, fulminate and 135 more...
-
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
My preparation
for GRE ofcourse
morbid, disparate, incipient, exonerate, engross, ebullient, predilection, propensity, allure, qualms, chastise, perpetuate and 111 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for savant.

seanahan You almost never hear this word without being prefaced by idiot. Jul 8, 2007