savant
/sæˈvɑnt/ noun C2- A person of learning, especially one who is versed in literature or science.
- A person who is considered eminent because of their achievements.
- A person with or without significant mental disabilities who is very gifted in one area of activity, such as playing the piano or mental arithmetic.
Plural savants
From the library
Faria had dug his way through fifty feet, Dantès would dig a hundred; Faria, at the age of fifty, had devoted three years to the task; he, who was but half as old, would sacrifice six; Faria, a priest and savant, had not shrunk from the idea of risking his life by trying to swim a distance of three miles to one of the islands—Daume, Rattonneau, or Lemaire; should a hardy sailor, an experienced diver, like himself, shrink from a similar task; should he, who had so often for mere amusement’s sake plunged to the bottom of the sea to fetch up the bright coral branch, hesitate to entertain the same project?
His conversation, I remember, was about the Bertillon system of measurements, and he expressed his enthusiastic admiration of the French savant.
“Do you suppose that the real savant addresses himself stupidly to the mere individual?
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