savvy

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 8, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>savvy</strong> &#149; \SAV-ee\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/understand">understand</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"The agency's Denver office sent Siringo, who <em>savvied</em> some Spanish, to Santa Fe." — Ollie Reed Jr., <em>The Albuquerque (New Mexico) Tribune</em>, 30 June 2001</p> <p>"And kudos to Stan for the sensitivity. <em>Savvying</em> the tension between Ted and Peggy, Stan offers a sincere, '<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buck#h2">Buck</a> up chief.'" — <a href="https://www.theday.com/article/20140414/INTERACT010316/140419889">Marisa Nadolny, <em>The Day</em> (New London, Connecticut), 18 Apr. 2014</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>While the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/savvy#h2">noun <em>savvy</em></a>, meaning "practical know-how" (as in "her political savvy"), and the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/savvy#h1">adjective use</a> (as in "a savvy investor") are more common, the verb <em>savvy</em> is the oldest of the trio. (If you associate it with Captain Jack Sparrow of the <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_(film_series)">Pirates of the Caribbean</a></em> franchise, you'll be pleased to know his use—as in, "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?"—is not anachronistic; the verb was the only <em>savvy</em> option extant in the movies' early 18th-century setting.) Current evidence dates the verb <em>savvy</em> to the late 17th century, when English speakers altered a word—<em>sabi</em>, meaning "know"—they were hearing in English-based creoles and pidgins (a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pidgin">pidgin</a> is a simplified language or dialect t