wise man

wise man

See also: wiseman

English

Alternative forms

• wiseman

Etymology

wise + man

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwʌɪzman/

Noun

wise man (plural wise men)

1. A man who is wise.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     That is the reason, why some say, that the wiseman liveth as long as he ought, and not so long as he can.

   • 1635, John Donne, The Triple Foole:

     But where's that wiseman, that would not be I, / If she would not deny?

   • 2005, "A wise man in Washington", The Economist, 14 Dec.:

     Mr Lieberman is arguably the last surviving example of a peculiar Washington species: the Wise Man who is willing to put party allegiance aside when it comes to big issues such as foreign policy.

2. A man who is a sage or seer.
   • 1989, Keith Bosley, translating Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala, III:

     Steady old Väinämöinen / the everlasting wise man [translating tietäjä] / was driving along his roads / pacing out his ways / in those glades of Väinö-land / on the Kalevala heaths.

3. A magus or wizard, now especially one of the three biblical magi.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p.174:

     Some of the other charms employed by the wise men had a more tangled pedigree.

Hypernyms

• elder
• mentor
• sage
• seer

Translations

wise man

Chinese: Mandarin: 哲人 (zh) (zhérén), 智者 (zh) (zhìzhě), 聖人／圣人 (zh) (shèngrén) Egyptian: (sꜣꜣ) Esperanto: saĝulo Finnish: viisas mies French: sage (fr) m Galician: sabio m Greek: Ancient: σοφός m (sophós) Irish: fáidh m Japanese: 賢人 (ja) (kenjin), 哲人 (tetsujin), 賢者 (ja) (kenja) Latin: sapiens m Latvian: gudrinieks m Maharastri Prakrit: 𑀧𑀁𑀟𑀺𑀅 (paṃḍia) Old English: wita m Polish: mędrzec (pl) m Sanskrit: कवि (sa) m (kavi) Spanish: sabio (es) m

man who is a sage or seer

Finnish: tietäjä (fi)

magus

Finnish: tietäjä (fi), see Itämaan tietäjät French: roi mage m Galician: rei mago m Irish: fáidh m Spanish: rey mago m

See also

• wise woman

Anagrams

• Weisman, Wiemans, Wiesman, manwise