| 词组 | savant |
| 释义 | savant Savant is not a remarkably common word, but it does have a wide range of applications. It can be used seriously to denote a person of great knowledge and brilliance: • The volume demonstrates the savant's great learning, depth of understanding and ease of presentation —British Book News, December 1965 But it can also mean little more than "one who is in the know": • It is this particular window ... that industry savants believe holds the key to the fiscal future —Kenneth Turan, TV Guide, 20 July 1984 And it often has a strongly ironic—or even sarcastic— quality: • ... in reading, say, a book review by one of the apple-cheeked savants of the quarterlies or one of the pious gremlins who manufacture puns for Time — John Updike, in Five Boyhoods, ed. Martin Levin, 1962 This variability of tone and meaning seems to have played some part in provoking occasional criticism by usage commentators. Copperud 1964, for one, considers savant in many of its uses to be journalese. Savant has recently developed a new sense that deserves to be noted. The term idiot savant has long been used in medical parlance to describe a person who is mentally deficient but exhibits great talent or brilliance in a particular field, such as music or mathematics. The term is not meant to be offensive in any way, but idiot is such a strongly derogatory word that its use in this term seems needlessly cruel to many people, and the tendency in recent years has been to use savant by itself: • It is not even clear who qualifies as a savant, nor is it easy to tell the difference between a mentally retarded savant and an autistic savant —Richard Restak, Science 82, May 1982 |
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