Sage

How to spell sage

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sage

What does sage mean?

1. nounA grey-green aromatic herb used to flavour cooking.
2. nounA person widely respected for deep wisdom and good judgement.
3. adjectiveShowing wisdom, sound judgement, or careful good sense.

Sage in a sentence

• noun

  The stuffing recipe calls for fresh sage and onion.

• noun

  The ancient sage was sought out by rulers for advice.

• adjective

  Paying off the debt early proved a sage financial decision.

• noun

  She rubbed dried sage into the roast pork before cooking.

• noun

  Villagers treated the old sage as the keeper of their history.

• adjective

  Her sage advice steered the team away from a costly mistake.

Where does sage come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word arrived in English in two strands that eventually share a Latin root. The 'wise' sense comes through Old French sage from the Vulgar Latin sapius, built on the classical Latin verb sapere, which literally meant 'to taste' and then, by a natural shift, 'to have good sense' or 'to be discerning'. The herb sense travelled separately through Old French sauge from the Latin salvia, a plant name connected to salvus 'safe, healthy', because the herb was prized for its supposed healing powers. The two words landed in English during the 1300s and settled on the same spelling, so the leafy garnish and the wise elder now look identical on the page. The taste-to-wisdom journey behind sapere also lies behind 'savour' and the species name Homo sapiens, the 'wise human'.

How the word is built

• sage (from Latin sapere: to be wise/to taste)