sciens

Latin

Etymology

Present active participle of sciō (“to be able to; to know; to understand”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈski.ẽːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈʃiː.ens]

Participle

sciēns (genitive scientis, comparative scientior, superlative scientissimus, adverb scienter); third-declension one-termination participle

1. knowing, understanding
2. conscious, aware

   Synonyms: cōnsciēns, cognōscēns, cōnscius, scius

   Antonyms: ignārus, nescius, ignōrāns, īnscius, nesciēns, expers

3. knowledgeable, skilled
4. (figuratively, of a woman) having sexual relations with a man.
5. (adjective equivalent to an adverb) knowingly, purposely, consciously
   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitruo 2.2.661:

     An ille me tentat sciens?

     Is he purposely testing me?

Declension

Third-declension participle.

	singular			plural
	masc./fem.	neuter		masc./fem.	neuter
nominative	sciēns			scientēs	scientia
genitive	scientis			scientium
dative	scientī			scientibus
accusative	scientem	sciēns		scientēs scientīs	scientia
ablative	sciente scientī1			scientibus
vocative	sciēns			scientēs	scientia

¹When used purely as an adjective.

Derived terms

• īnsciēns
• omnisciēns
• scientia

Descendants

• → English: scient
• → Cornish: skians
• Italian: sciente
• → Middle English: scient
• → Old French: escient
  • French: escient
• Old Spanish: ciente, esciente
• → Portuguese: ciente
• → Sicilian: scenti

References

• “sciens”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sciens”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “sciens”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a good Latin scholar: bene latine doctus or sciens
    
  • (ambiguous) to acquire knowledge of a subject: scientia comprehendere aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) to enrich a person's knowledge: scientia augere aliquem
    
  • (ambiguous) logic, dialectic: dialectica (-ae or -orum) (pure Latin disserendi ratio et scientia)
    
  • (ambiguous) geographical knowledge: regionum terrestrium aut maritimarum scientia
    

Middle English

Noun

sciens

1. alternative form of science