savant means A surname. It carries an Arena rating of 1308, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, savant ranks #2,308 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,350 of 14,448 for Most Incisive Words, #2,580 of 14,456 for The Improbable, #2,690 of 14,322 for Scariest Words.
savant is pronounced /sæˈvɑnt/.
Why “savant” is a great word
A person of profound or specialized learning, or a person with a developmental disability who exhibits exceptional skill or brilliance in a specific, often narrow, field. From French savant, the present participle of savoir ("to know"), from Latin sapere ("to be wise"); the specific sense relating to exceptional skill alongside disability emerged in the 19th century as a clipping of the term idiot savant. Unlike "expert," which denotes skill acquired through training, or "erudite," which emphasizes broad, bookish scholarship, savant suggests an innate and often oracular mastery—knowledge that arrives unbidden and complete. It is the child who renders a cathedral in perfect perspective but cannot tie a shoe, the man who computes the day of the week for any date across millennia yet cannot name his own emotions, the hand that flawlessly replicates a sonata after one hearing while trembling at simple tasks—a stark reminder that the mind’s deepest wells are sometimes fed by the most inaccessible springs.
Etymology
Borrowed from French savant, from Latin sapiō. Doublet of sapient. Sense 3 is a clipping of idiot savant, literally ‘wise idiot’.
noun
- A person of learning, especially one who is versed in literature or science.
- A person who is considered eminent because of their achievements.
- A person with or without significant mental disabilities who is very gifted in one area of activity, such as playing the piano or mental arithmetic.
Words closest in meaning
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