Sapient comes from Latin sapiens, sapient-, the present participle of sapere ('to taste, be wise'); the same root underlies Homo sapiens. The historical chain includes Latin sapiens and Latin sapere. The quoted older sense, "to taste, be wise," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for sapient. The formation is best read as participial and borrowed: the word sapient carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "wise or showing great wisdom and sagacity". English derivatives include sapience and sapiently; related English forms include sapience, savant, savvy, and insipid. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.