sapience
(ˈseɪpɪəns)
Also 4–6 sapyence, 4–5, Sc. 6, 8 sapiens.
[a. OF. sapience, ad. L. sapientia, f. sapient-em sapient: see -ence.]
1. Wisdom, understanding. (A learned synonym. Now rare in serious use: see sense 2.)
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1626 Þat þou has in þy hert holy connyng, Of sapience þi sawle ful soþes to schawe. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 42 For what made Lucyfer to lese þe heigh heuene, Or salamon his sapience or sampson his strengthe? 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 3854 But whan monhod is meynt with sapience, Who considereth, it may double avayle. 1509 Watson Ship of Fools ii. (1517) A iv, All the scyence and all the sapyence of men shall not excuse them. 1549 Compl. Scotl. vi. 43 Appollo, that the poietis callis the god of sapiens. 1603 Harsnet Pop. Impost. 99 It is a point of high Sapience in the Church of Rome to choose [etc.]. 1659 Queries on Proposalls of Officers of Armie to Parlt. 4 As that Supreme Master of Politicall Sapience doth assert. 1724 Ramsay Vision xv, A king..Quhase pusiens, and sapiens, Sall richt restore and saiv. 1730 Swift Traulus 1, Yet many a Wretch in Bedlam..still has Gratitude and Sap'ence, To spare the Folks that give him Ha'pence. 1836 Hor. Smith Tin Trump. s.v. Praise, Silence is sapience. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 71 ‘Honour all men’ is one of the many texts of combined sanctity and sapience with which the New Testament abounds. 1901 Corvo Ho. Borgia 20 That letter..written..with the unerring sapience of a saint. |
† b. as an attribute of God. Hence applied to the Word or second person of the Trinity. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prioress' Prol. 20 Of whos vertu, whan he thyn herte lighte, Conceyued was the fadres sapience. c 1400 Sowdone Bab. 2 God..That al thinge made in sapience. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iv. vii. 247 The diuyne puissaunce and the sapience of almyghty god. 1536 Primer Eng. & Lat. 55 b, He that is the greate profounde sapience And dyuyne trueth of the father on hye. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. vi. §1. 27 b, All learning is knowledge acquired, and all knowledge in God is originall. And therefore we must looke for it by another name, that of wisdome or sapience, as the scriptures call it. 1698 [R. Ferguson] View Eccles. 100 Herein is the Immense Sapience and the Superlative Goodness of God to be admired. |
† c. Spiritual wisdom, knowledge of divine things.
| [c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 9 God the ffulfylle withe intelligence, And withe a spyrut of goostly sapience. c 1570 W. Wager The longer thou livest 1654 (Brandl), As scripture calleth this the hiest sapience, God to know, to feare, to loue, and obey.] 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man vi. (1603) 589 Let us now examine Sapience..or that part of wisedome which is conversant in the contemplation of God and divine matters. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. (1634) 21 The eie of the soule, or receptacle of Sapience and divine knowledge. |
† d. sometimes contradistinguished from prudence (see quots.). Obs.
| 1606 L. Bryskett Civ. Life 252 This light of reason (as much as concerneth mens actions) is nothing else but Prudence,..euen as sapience or wisedome is the guide and gouernesse of speculation. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. v. 22 As, much Experience, is Prudence; so, is much Science, Sapience. For though wee usually have one name of Wisedome for them both; yet the Latines did alwayes distinguish between Prudentia and Sapientia; ascribing the former to Experience, the later to Science. a 1677 Barrow Serm. (1686) III. xiv. 156 Wisedom..may denote either sapience, a habit of knowing what is true; or prudence, a disposition of chusing what is good. |
† e. Correct taste and judgement. Obs.
| 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 1018 Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste, And elegant, of Sapience no small part, Since to each meaning savour we apply, And Palate call judicious. |
| 1692 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 540 (Heneage Finch) A person of so eloquent and fluent speech, and of so great sapience, that he was usually stiled the English Roscius and the English Cicero. 1796 Burney Mem. Metastasio III. 174 The sapience of Horace, that is, the correct judgment which reigns in all you think and write. |
2. Used depreciatingly or ironically: Would-be wisdom.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 515 Loo þer goþe he þat is man of so grete sapience and held vs louers leest in reuerence. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 287 This is a piece of sapience not worth the brain of a fruit-trencher. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. iii. 794 Staring round with Owl-like Eies, He put his face into a posture Of Sapience, and began to bluster. 1781 Cowper Charity 519 Just as the sapience of an author's brain Suggests it safe or dang'rous to be plain. 1893 Morley Sp. at Manchester 8 Nov., Wisdom is the real article and sapience is the sham article. |
† 3. The apocryphal book of ‘Wisdom’. Obs.
In Piers Plowman perh. used as a general name for the ‘sapiental books’ of the Bible.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 47 So seiþ þe sauter and sapience boþe. 1377 Ibid. B. iii. 330 Se what Salamon seith in Sapience bokes. 14.. Wyclif's Bible, Wisd. ad. fin., Here endith the book of Sapiens. 1534 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1199/1 Of this arowe speaketh the wise man in the .v. Chapter of Sapience. 1563 Homilies ii. Rogation Wk. iii. 245 b, Wherein is expressed further in Sapience howe God geueth his elect an vnderstandyng of the motions of the heauens. |