If you follow the stock market at all you are aware of the massive downturn in the indices around the world.
As I write this column the US Dow Jones index is down over 18% this year. The Canadian TSX is down around 14%. The German DAX is down 24%. Even the Japanese NIKKEI is down close to 11%. Sagacious investors will not panic but ride out the bump and remember the adage; buy low, sell high.
The word sagacious means of keen and farsighted judgment. A sagacious decision is caused by or indicating acute discernment. It appeared in the English language in the early 17th century.
For some decades, sagacious referred to the perceptiveness of sight, touch, and especially, smell. One of the first authors to use the word, Edward Topsell, wrote in 1607 of bees searching for something with “a most sagacious smelling-sense.” Sagacious has unfortunately lost that insight. It is interesting that English has developed words for discernment of sight and touch, but not smell.
Those with acute vision are far-sighted. People with a fine sense of touch are sensitive. But there is no adjective to describe an excellent sense of smell.
You might expect sagacious to be connected to the word ‘sage,’ a wise person or an adjective, meaning wise. Despite similarities of spelling, sound, and sense, the two words are not closely related. Sagacious comes from sagire, a Latin verb meaning to perceive keenly.
And it is related to the Latin sagus which refers to prophetic insights. Etymologists believe that sage comes from a different Latin verb, sapere, which means to taste, to have good taste, and eventually to be wise.
Sagacious, shrewd, perspicacious, and astute can all mean acute in perception and sound in judgement but there are subtle differences. Shrewd stresses practical, hard-headed cleverness and judgement.
Perceptive people are often a shrewd judge of character. Perspicacious implies power to see through and understand what is puzzling or hidden. A good counsellor can often see through a person’s façade to arrive at the true intent. Astute suggests diplomatic skill in achieving goals. Elected leaders are often astute players of party politics.
Sagacious implies wisdom and farsightedness in decision making.
Here are some excerpts from a story in Japanese Fairy Tales compiled by Yet Theodora Ozaki in 1908. It is called The Sagacious Monkey and the Boar.
Long, long ago, there lived in the province of Shinshin in Japan, a travelling monkey-man, who earned his living by taking round a monkey and showing off the animal's tricks.
One evening the man came home in a very bad temper and told his wife to send for the butcher the next morning. . . . "It's no use taking that monkey round any longer, he's too old and forgets his tricks. I beat him with my stick all I know how, but he won't dance properly. I must now sell him to the butcher and make what money out of him I can. There is nothing else to be done."
Now the monkey was in the next room and overheard every word of the conversation. He soon understood that he was to be killed, and he said to himself: Woe is me!
What am I to do? Ah! A bright thought has struck me! There is, I know, a wild boar living in the forest nearby. I have often heard of his wisdom. Perhaps if I go to him and tell him the strait that I am in, he will give me his counsel. I will go and try.
There was no time to lose. The monkey slipped out of the house and ran as quickly as he could to the forest to find the boar. The boar was at home, and the monkey began his tale of woe at once.
The boar said: "Hasn't your master a baby?" "Oh, yes," said the monkey, "he has one infant son." "Doesn't it lie by the door in the morning when your mistress begins the work of the day? Well, I will come round early and when I see my opportunity, I will seize the child and run off with it."
"What then?" said the monkey. "Why the mother will be in such a tremendous scare, and before your master and mistress know what to do, you must run after me and rescue the child and take it home safely to its parents, and you will see that when the butcher comes, they won't have the heart to sell you."
Then all happened as the boar had planned. Both the man and wife were moved to admiration at the gallant conduct of the sagacious monkey, and their gratitude knew no bounds when the faithful monkey brought the child safely back to their arms.
"There!" said the wife. "This is the animal you want to kill—if the monkey hadn't been here, we would have lost our child forever." The man replied,
"You may send the butcher back when he comes." When the butcher arrived, he was sent away with an order for some boar's meat for the evening dinner, and the monkey was petted and lived the rest of his days in peace.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
