sagacity

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The quality of being sage, wise, or able to make good decisions; the quality of being perceptive, astute or insightful.

   Young ladies have great penetration in such matters as these; but I think I may defy even your sagacity, to discover the name of your admirer.

2. 2
   noun

   Keen sense of smell.

   […] this Beast [the Ichneumon] is not only enemy to the Crocodile and Asp, but also to their Egs, which she hunteth out by the sagacity of her nose, and so destroyeth them […].

3. 3
   noun

   the trait of forming opinions by distinguishing and evaluating

4. 4
   noun

   the mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations

From French sagacité, from Latin sagācitās (“sagaciousness”), from sagāx (“of quick perception, acute, sagacious”), from sāgiō (“to perceive by the senses”). Equivalent to sagac(ious) + -ity.

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