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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:38 am  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Hi

savvy, savvey (AmE Smile)
- Savvy?
- No savvy Smile

'savvy', 'savvey'… sound quite colloquial, don’t they?
Just ask BNC and it immediately confirms Smile

But…

'savvy project'
'Web savvy clients' Smile
'be savvy to the market' (?)
'must be savvy to integrate'
'savvy user'
- these are expressions quite often used in documents (including those written in the UK, by BE native speakers Smile)

'political savvy'… (I don't know what it means, but it's in use)

What do you think about savvy in modern English?
Just colloquial or 'acceptable'?
As a noun? As an adjective? As a verb?
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:11 am  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Hi Tamara

In my opinion, you can use savvy in all but the most excrutiatingly formal of language.

Savvy is widely and regularly used.

I'd say it's mainly used as a moun but can also be used as an adjective. Someone who has "political savvy" is very knowledgeable about politics -- including a lot of subtle knowledge/know-how.

Where did you get all of your examples from?

Amy
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Savvy Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:27 am  Savvy
 

Hi Tamara,

Savvy can be used as an adjective or a noun as in:

You'd think he would have had the savvy to realise what to do in those circumstances. Here the word relates to: common sense - know-how - nous or that wonderful word gumption.

As an adjective:

Well, the reason he didn't realise is that he's not exactly street savvy. Here the word relates to being aware of what happens in real ife, similar to streetwise.

And of course if you want to go the whole hog, you can always use the expression 'having the savoir faire to ...', which is after all where the word comes from indicating: knowing what to do in any situation.

Alan
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 14:25 pm  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Tamara wrote:
Hi

savvey (AmE Smile)

Hi Tamara, where did you find the spelling savvey? As far as I know it's just savvy in both American and British English. Or were you referring to pronunciation?
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Nous Tue Oct 17, 2006 15:31 pm  Nous
 

Alan wrote:
nous

Strictly entre nous, that word is an absolute newcomer in my vocabulary list. It looked strange at first -- I even thought Alan might have misspelled it, and I certainly didn't pronounce it correctly until I looked it up. My, this language never stops surprising me!
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 15:55 pm  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Hi

Thank you, Amy, Alan.

Quote:
Where did you get all of your examples from?

I asked for validation just because BNC gave quite 'slangy' examples of using savvy as a verb, like
Quote:
I plenty savvy in jungle.
Herbert no savvy.
I don't want coffee, I want to be alone --; savvy?
There's been a nuclear accident, savvy?

etc
Smile

(also, in some dictionaries savvy is marked as American slang)

but I also see it in written documents - used as a noun or as an unchangeable adjective.
Lots of examples…
Just to give you a general impression:
Quote:
The network must also be to be easy to administer, as it is unlikely that the company will be sufficiently well resourced to run to a dedicated network administrator and will rely on the most PC savvy member of staff.

'most PC suvvy'... well, OK…

As I deal mostly with technical documents (hi, Amy), I often need to have some validation for the language used.
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 15:58 pm  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Hi Torsten

For examples,
savvey
http://www.brainydictionary.com/words/sa/savvey215799.html
http://www.babylon.com/definition/savvey/Russian?uil=English
http://www.lingvo.ru/lingvo/Link.asp?Ln=1&CardId=73;61;76;76;79;0;4c;69;6e;67;76;6f;55;6e;69;76;65;72;73;61;6c;20;28;45;6e;2d;52;75;29

Also:
Quote:
3) Savvy or savvey is an Americanization of the Spanish sabe, a form of the verb saber, meaning “to know.” “Do you savvy?” is equivalent to “?Sabe Usted?” Both expressions mean “Do you know?” Savvy was originally acquired from the Mexicans by early ranchers in the Southwest who spelled and pronounced the word savvy rather than sabe because in Spanish b and v are pronounced almost alike and in many words are used interchangeably. Used as a noun, savvy means understanding, mental grasp or knowledge of affairs. Regardless of usage, the word is slang.

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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 18:19 pm  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Hi Tamara

It appears savvy may be mainly used in the US? Hmm... Well, in any case, iin AmE, savvy is used much too often and in too many contexts to be categorized as slang, in my opinion.

To be honest, I'd always thought that savvy had somehow come into English from French (savoir --> to know). But I had never researched it -- that had just always been my assumption. Shocked

Amy

Edit:
It seems my assumption wasn't too bad:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=savvy Very Happy
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 21:25 pm  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Amy wrote:
iin AmE

Somehow or the other, it looks beautiful, doesn't it, Amy? Very Happy Laughing

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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Tue Oct 17, 2006 22:45 pm  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

.
Can't you cut me some slack, Tom? I haven't had a chance to master the hunt and peck system yet. Cool
.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hunt%20and%20peck
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/typo Wink
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:36 am  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Yankee wrote:
I'd say it's mainly used as a moun

Amy, I like your typos, they also make contribution in my learning process, developing my feeling of English and sometimes inducing me to study a dictionary even more carefully. Smile

Let them in peace, please Smile
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:51 am  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Thank you for pointing that out, Tamara. Cool

As you can see, I'm still light-years away from being a touch typist. Crying or Very sad
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:58 am  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

Amy, this was not "pointing out your 'mistake' ".
I just wanted to say you that I like you not only as an 'English teacher' (who ought to be perfect in eyes of students).
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'Savvy users' – techies again?… :) Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:05 am  'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)
 

I understood that, Tamara. Very Happy And thank you.

I've been considering adding a comment similar to Spencer's at the bottom of my posts:
Any errors you may find are intentional and are specifically included to test your knowledge. Laughing

Amy
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