Post by t-bob on May 9, 2019 10:02:51 GMT -5
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noun
1. keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration.
Quotes
How well she deceived her father we shall have occasion to learn; but her innocent arts were of little avail before a person of the rare perspicacity of Mrs. Penniman. -- Henry James, Washington Square, 1880 This early work shows that Saramago had yet to achieve his radical style, but his perspicacity and wit were already fully formed. -- Carmela Ciuraru, "Newly Released Books; Skylight," New York Times, December 24, 2014
Origin
Perspicacity ultimately comes from the Late Latin noun perspicācitās (inflectional stem perspicācitāt-) “sharp-sightedness, discernment,” a derivative of the Latin adjective perspicāx (inflectional stem perspicāc-) “sharp-sighted, penetrating, acute.” Perspicāx is a derivative of the verb perspicere “to inspect thoroughly, examine, look through, see through.” The prefix per- here is both literal (“to see or look through”) and intensive (“to examine thoroughly”). The combining form -spicere comes from specere “to see, observe, keep an eye on,” a Latin derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root spek-, spok- “look at closely, examine.” Greek metathesizes the root to skep- and skop- (as in the English derivatives skeptic and horoscope). The Germanic form of the root, speh-, is the source of English spy and espionage. Perspicacity entered English in the 16th century
