'Savvy users' – techies again?… :)

[Tamara]

Hi

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

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

But…

'savvy project'
'Web savvy clients'
'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 )

'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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It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…

[Yankee]

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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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

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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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Conditionals

[Torsten]

[Conchita]

[Tamara]

Hi

Thank you, Amy, Alan.

[Tamara]

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:

[Yankee]

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.

Amy

Edit:
It seems my assumption wasn't too bad:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=savvy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tom]

[Yankee]

.
Can't you cut me some slack, Tom? I haven't had a chance to master the hunt and peck system yet.
.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hunt%20and%20peck
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/typo
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tamara]

[Yankee]

Thank you for pointing that out, Tamara.

As you can see, I'm still light-years away from being a touch typist.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tamara]

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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It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…

[Yankee]

I understood that, Tamara. 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.

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English