sage
pronunciation
How to pronounce sage in British English:
UK [seɪdʒ]
How to pronounce sage in American English:
US [sedʒ]
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- Noun:
- a mentor in spiritual and philosophical topics who is renowned for profound wisdom
- aromatic fresh or dried gray-green leaves used widely as seasoning for meats and fowl and game etc
- any of various plants of the genus Salvia; a cosmopolitan herb
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- Adjective:
- having wisdom that comes with age and experience
- of the gray-green color of sage leaves
Word Origin
- sage
- sage: see safe
- sage (n.1)
- kind of herb (Salvia officinalis), early 14c., from Old French sauge (13c.), from Latin salvia, from salvus "healthy" (see safe (adj.)). So called for its healing or preserving qualities (it was used to keep teeth clean and relieve sore gums, and boiled in water to make a drink to alleviate arthritis). In English folklore, sage, like parsley, is said to grow best where the wife is dominant. In late Old English as salvie, directly from Latin. Compare German Salbei, also from Latin.
- sage (adj.)
- "wise," c. 1300 (late 12c. as a surname), from Old French sage "wise, knowledgeable, learned; shrewd, skillful" (11c.), from Gallo-Roman *sabius, from Vulgar Latin *sapius, from Latin sapere "have a taste, have good taste, be wise," from PIE root *sap- "to taste" (see sap (n.1)). Meaning "characterized by wisdom" is from 1530s. Related: Sageness.
- sage (n.2)
- "man of profound wisdom," mid-14c., from sage (adj.). Originally applied to the Seven Sages -- Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilon, Bias, and Pittacus.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Some 2400 years ago mencius , a confucian sage , endured a peripatetic chinese childhood .
- 2. What is the bearded sage saying about east timor in his blog ?
- 3. The shrink and the sage live together in south-west england
- 4. They saw that sage , reading a very , very thick book .
- 5. The trouble with foreign policy , a sage diplomat once observed , is that it involves foreigners-and they don 't always do what they are told .