Sage counsel on the herb szałwia
I was looking at the herb sage, but I couldn't help wonder about it's wider use in English. A sage being a wise person or sage used adjectivally for wisdom. I had always committed the etymological sin of making an assumption about the origin of the word without any evidence. I got it into my head that sage was believed to be good for the brain, hence its use to mean wisdom. It seems, however, that we get it from the Old French for wisdom, sage, which comes from Gallo-Roman sabius and back to Latin. This time, not to salvia for healing, but to sapere, to have good taste or discernment. Figuratively used to mean having wisdom.
From these two separate etymologies for our use of the word sage, I am reasonably sure that in Polish, szałwia means the herb and has no figurative use.
This quote from the late Miles Kington, on wisdom, has been translated into Polish:
Wiedza to świadomość, że pomidor jest owocem. Mądrość to nie dodawanie pomidora do sałatki owocowej.
But I would argue that wisdom is not buying them from a British supermarket:
Mądrością to nie jest kupowanie pomidorów w brytyjskim supermarkecie.
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