Latin #8

Root: SAG   

Meaning: wise, shrewd, perceptive

Words:

1. Sage (adj): wise, shrewd or perceptive AND (n): a person who is wise, shrewd or perceptive

I, Christine of An Island Mom notoriety, have offered so much sage advice to people who may or may not want it, that many people consider me to be a sage. Honestly, there are like thousands of imaginary people who think of me as one.

2. Sagacity (n) (-ity = condition or quality of): condition or quality of being wise

LCB has this quirky habit of randomly quoting a few lines from one of many passages he memorized as a child. Usually, the topic of the quoted material is completely out of the conversational context, which makes it fun to witness when we are with other people, because you can see them trying to figure out what in the world he’s blathering about. One such passage is from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” When he gets to the line, “Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers, of my own sagacity,” he pops the word “sagacity” in a most unusual way. It’s partially fascinating and partially irritating. LCB’s quite good at eliciting both emotions simultaneously in me like that. This, then, is perhaps evidence of his own sagacity, as most people tend to elicit one or the other in me in isolation. Seriously, now that I mention it, how does he do that?

3. Presage (n) (pre- = before): a perception of something of the future, often negative, like an omen

Although I keep hoping otherwise, my presage tells me that until I hunker down and organize my office and all of my paperwork, I’m going to maintain a highly-frazzled state of mind. Really, part of me keeps saying to take it easy, that everything doesn’t have to be perfectly unpacked and arranged right away. But another part of me goes a little cuckoo every time I need a new form for school or, oh, say my etymology materials I spent way too much time trying to find when I wanted to start this post.