Sage

What do you think of when you hear the word sage used to describe a person? Do plants and trees come to mind?
 
The word sage (the person, not the herb) has its origins in ancient words meaning the sap of plants and the verb ‘to taste’. Some early sources suggest that a sage was a person with good taste!
 
First, the word sap meaning “the juice or fluid which circulates in plants, the blood of plant life” (Online Etymological Dictionary) has its origins Proto-Germanic sapam and Proto-Indo-European (PIE) sab (juice, fluid) from which comes the English word sap.
 
Second, PIE sab and PIE sap (to taste) are the origins of Latin sapere (to taste, to discern, to be wise) and 11th century Old French sage (wise, knowledgeable, learned; shrewd, skillful). By around 1300, the adjective sage meaning wise, judicious, prudent appears in English. At that time, Sage was also an English surname. Sage meaning characterized by wisdom is from the 1530s. The term homo sapiens shares these origins.
 
Speaking of sages and sap, I am reminded of the druid priests of the ancient Celts of Gaul, Britain, and Ireland. The word druid has its origins in PIE deru (tree, notably the oak; also true, truth) and weid (to see; the origin of the word video, by the way)—a druid is literally someone who sees truth in the trees. Or, as the Roman historian Tacitus wrote, the ancient Celts looked at trees with “the eye of reverence”.
 
All of this seems to suggest that in some ways being sage is more than being in your head all the time.
 
Isn’t etymology fun?!
 
And, in case you are wondering, the herb called sage has different origins.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://thesaurus.plus/related/sap/sage
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