Both Uses of
sapient
in
Don Quixote
- The king my father, who was called Tinacrio the Sapient, was very learned in what they call magic arts, and became aware by his craft that my mother, who was called Queen Jaramilla, was to die before he did, and that soon after he too was to depart this life, and I was to be left an orphan without father or mother.†
Chpt 1.29-30 *
- "There is no more to add," said Dorothea, "save that in finding Don Quixote I have had such good fortune, that I already reckon and regard myself queen and mistress of my entire dominions, since of his courtesy and magnanimity he has granted me the boon of accompanying me whithersoever I may conduct him, which will be only to bring him face to face with Pandafilando of the Scowl, that he may slay him and restore to me what has been unjustly usurped by him: for all this must come to pass satisfactorily since my good father Tinacrio the Sapient foretold it, who likewise left it declared in writing in Chaldee or Greek characters (for I cannot read them), that if this predicted knight, after hav†
Chpt 1.29-30
Definitions:
-
(1)
(sapient) wise and insightful
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, sapient is used in science fiction to refer to the quality of intelligent life as contrasted to something with machine judgment or life considered less-than-human in intrinsic value. Even more rarely, sapient may refer to something that gives the appearance of wisdom as in -- "wears a sapient beard."