Word of the Day

Sunday November 15, 2009

perspicacity [pur-spuh-KAS-uh-tee]

noun

Clearness of insight or understanding; acute discernment.

Business as usual is not an option: new solutions to new problems are needed and science and technology must play a role. Agroecology challenges us to acknowledge the perspicacity of Africa's farmers and resist the inclination to transfer to Africa more of the same old package - the technologies, market freedoms and mindsets - that created the food crisis in the first place.

Dan Taylor, "Response New scientific solutions are needed to tackle Africa's food crisis", The Guardian, Aug 13, 2009
Education on the home front also was very important to him - he would often pause in a conversation to give a quick tip on grammar or offer advice on how to remember the difference between words like averse and adverse, tenet and tenant. And he often liked to say that his favorite words were: persiflage, perspicacity, persnickety, and perspicuity.

Emma Stickgold, "Raymond Jewett, 84; ran small businesses with care R.L. Jewett", Boston Globe, Jul 13, 2009
"Well, I'll own those initials have been something of a puzzle to people. One man declares they're 'Merely Jokes'; but another, not so friendly, says they stand for 'Mostly Jealousy' of more fortunate chaps who have real names for a handle. My small brothers and sisters, discovering, with the usual perspicacity of one's family on such matters, that I never signed, or called myself anything but 'M. J.,' dubbed me 'Mary Jane.' And there you have it."

Eleanor Hodgman Porter (1868 - 1920) An American novelist. Miss Billy's Decision (1911)

Origin of the Word

Perspicacity, approximately 1548, derives from Middle French perspicacite, from Late Latin perspicacitas "sharp-sightedness, discernment," from Latin perspicax "sharp-sighted," from perspicere "look through."