Etymology
1. Inherited from Old French savoir/eir, from Vulgar Latin *sapēre, from Latin sapĕre.
2. Comments
3. The now-obsolete spelling sçavoir owes its ⟨ç⟩ to the Latin scīre (“to know”), which was long assumed to be the etymon of the French verb.
4. The 1SG present indicative sais comes from Old French sai < Vulgar Latin */ˈsajo/ ≠ Classical Latin sapiō. The inflections with ⟨ch⟩ reflect regular palatalization of an original [pj], as in sache < Old French sacheṭ < */ˈsa(p)t͡ʃat/ < */ˈsapjat/ < Classical Latin sapiat (cf. French seiche < Latin sēpia). The past participle su comes from Old French seü < */saˈ(β)udo/ < Vulgar Latin */saˈputu/, most likely influenced by Latin perfect verb forms such as sapuī.
5. Cognates
6. See also Angevin sçavouèr, Aragonese saber, Asturian saber, Bourbonnais-Berrichon savoér, Bourguignon saivoi, Catalan saber, Champenois saouâr, Corsican sapè, Franc-Comtois saivoi, Friulian savê, Galician saber, Gallo savair, Italian sapere, Ligurian savei, Lombard saver, Lorrain sahoir, Neapolitan sapé, Norman savi, savaer, savei, Occitan saber, saupre, Picard savoèr, Piedmontese savèj, Poitevin-Saintongeais saver, Portuguese saber, Romansh savair, saveir, saver, Sicilian sapiri, Spanish saber, Venetan saver, Walloon saveur. See: Old French '
savoir', Old French '
savoir', Latin '
sapio', Aragonese '
saber', Asturian '
saber', Valencian '
saber', Corsican '
sapè', Friulian '
savê', Galician '
saber', Italian '
sapere', Occitan '
saber', Portuguese '
saber', Rhaeto-Romance '
savair', Spanish '
saber'.
Verbs referencing "savoir"
Ido savar, Haitian Creole
savé.