Etymologically
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sagax

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsa.ɡaːks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsaː.ɡaks][1]

Forms

sagāx (genitive sagācis, superlative sagācissimus, adverb sagāciter); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sāgiō (“to perceive”) + -āx.[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *sag-āk- (“perceptive”) beside a verb Proto-Italic *sāg-ije/o- (“to seek, perceive”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂ǵ-i- (“tracking”), and compares Old Irish saigid (“to try to reach”), Hittite šāgāi- (“omen”), Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai, “to direct, lead”) and English seek.[4] Köbler and Pokorny give the root as ⟨*sāg-⟩ “to seek, track”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][5] who says of someone that he has a keen nose.[3] The OLD's first quotation is Ennius' hunting dog that scents the wild beasts with its keen nose.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is first keen-scented, chiefly of dogs, as in Cicero and Ovid;[3][2] Ovid also has a goose keener than dogs.[3][2] Of people and minds it is sharp, acute or perceptive: Afranius asks who has so shrewd a heart and so unique a wit, and Lucretius writes of what we seek with keen reasoning.[2] Church Latin glosses it keen-sensed and sagacious,[6] and Wiktionary records a rare sense magical.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a keen nose.[3][5]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of a keen-scented hound.[2][5]
  • second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius of a shrewd mind.[2][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of keen reasoning.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Keen-scented; keen in any of the senses.[2][3][1]
  2. Of people and minds, sharp, acute, perceptive, shrewd, sagacious.[2][3][1][6]
  3. (rare) Magical.[1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson