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“savant”
1. Someone who is a profound or extensive learner; a scholar: A savant is considered to be well-versed in literature or science, and often with an exceptional skill in a specialized field of education.
2. Etymology: from Latin sapere "to be wise"; and savant "a learned man" which is a noun use of the adjective form savant "learned, knowing."
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2. Etymology: from Latin sapere "to be wise"; and savant "a learned man" which is a noun use of the adjective form savant "learned, knowing."
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savant, idiot savant, idiot
savant (sa VAHNT) (noun)
1. A learned person or someone who knows a great amount about a particular subject: Rhonda is really a computer savant because she is an excellent authority regarding computers.
2. Someone who does not have normal intelligence but who has a very unusual mental ability that other people do not have: Michael had poor reading skills; however, he was considered a savant because he could do unbelievable things with numbers and he had a fantastic memory of historical facts.
2. Someone who does not have normal intelligence but who has a very unusual mental ability that other people do not have: Michael had poor reading skills; however, he was considered a savant because he could do unbelievable things with numbers and he had a fantastic memory of historical facts.
Savant is now the preferred term for "idiot savant" and is recommended as the word which should be used instead.
idiot savant (ID ee uht sa VAHNT) (noun)
An intellectually disabled person who exhibits extraordinary ability in a highly specialized area; such as, mathematics or music: Idiot savant is no longer considered an acceptable term and "savant" is now the preferred reference for this definition.
idiot (ID ee uht) (noun)
A foolish or stupid person: Kyle felt that he really made an idiot of himself at the dinner table the other night by asking the hostess an embarrassing question by mistake!
An idiot driver kept trying to pass Joel on the narrow road the other night while he was going at the speed limit while other cars were coming from the opposite direction.
Anita, a famed psychologist and a renowned savant in the field of child psychology, gave a lecture in which she emphasized the negative implications of the use of the term idiot savant and the even more frequent use of idiot.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group S; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 2)
Word Entries containing the term:
“savant”
autistic savant
1. An individual with autism who has an extraordinary talent or skill not produced by most people.
2. Someone who expresses extraordinary mental abilities, often in the fields of numerical calculation, but also in art or music.
2. Someone who expresses extraordinary mental abilities, often in the fields of numerical calculation, but also in art or music.
Information about Autistic Savants and their special skills.
This entry is located in the following unit:
auto-, aut-
(page 3)