saccente

Forms

saccente m or f by sense (plural saccenti)^[1] An old variant is Old Italian sacente.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sapiēns (“wise, discerning”), the present participle of sapiō (“to be wise; to taste”), which reached Italian through the southern dialects.^{[3][4][5][6][7][1]} In the south the Latin group /pj/ became /ttʃ/, written ⟨cc⟩, as in Neapolitan saccio (“I know”), which continues the first person singular of the same verb.^[4][7] DELI compares piccione for the sound change.^[3] Devoto starts from Vulgar Latin *sapjens.^[8] Sabatini–Coletti call it the popular form beside the learned sapiente, its doublet.^[7][1]

Meyer-Lübke took it instead from French sachant (“knowing”), the present participle of savoir, and Tommaseo also compared the French word.^[9][10] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *sh₁p-i- (“to notice”) for the Latin verb, with an uncertain laryngeal.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the first record to 1306, in the old sense “expert, wise”.^[6][4][12] Zingarelli gives about 1250, and DEI and Prati cite the old sense “wise, expert, shrewd” from the Ritmo cassinese and Guido delle Colonne.^[13][14][15] The Tesoretto has ma io non son saccente / se non di quel, ch'e' vuole (“but I am not knowing, save in what she wills”).^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the old language saccente was praise: wise, learned, or clever and shrewd.^[10][6] An old Bible translation renders a psalm with farotti saccente in questa via (“I will make you wise in this way”), and Boccaccio's saccente barattiere is a crafty trickster.^[10][6][12]

The pejorative sense, someone who presumes to know but does not, appears before 1492 in Lorenzo de' Medici.^[3] He writes of women who, thinking they understand a great deal, become unbearable by judging everything, che vulgarmente le chiamano saccenti (“whom people commonly call saccenti”).^[2][10] This sense has displaced the old one, which the modern dictionaries mark as archaic.^[13][16] The noun saccenteria is recorded before 1472, in L. B. Alberti.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1306 – First record, in the sense “expert, wise”.^[6][4][12]
• Before 1472 – L. B. Alberti uses saccenteria.^[3][4]
• Before 1492 – Lorenzo de' Medici uses saccente for a person who presumes to know.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Presuming to know what one does not, or showing off one's learning in an irritating way; pedantic, conceited: Quel collega saccente corregge tutti.^{[6][12][13][1]}
2. Showing such presumption: un sorriso saccente.^[6][17][12]
3. (archaic) Learned, expert, wise.^[6][18][1]
4. (archaic) Shrewd, crafty.^[6][12][1]

Noun

1. A know-it-all: fare il saccente, to play the know-it-all.^[6][16][1]

Word family

• saccenteria
• saccentemente
• saccentone
• saccentello

Related words

• sapiente
• sapere
• Latin sapiens

Usage notes

Saputo and sapientone are near synonyms.^[7] In Umbria saccente is also a dialect word: a ham bone at Foligno, and at Perugia and Magione an adjective meaning “bad” or “tasting stale”, from the Latin sense “having a taste”.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3304
15. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 863
16. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET