Savant

savant







Y

 [sa-vahnt, sav-uhnt; Fr. sa-vahn]



D



–noun

a person of profound or extensive learning; learned scholar. 





C



savant, idiot savant (nn.) 

 

Savant (pronounced suh-VAHNT or suh-VANT) used to be a good, low-frequency word meaning "a scholar, a learned person," 



but it began to be overused, especially in the press, to apply to any nominally articulate person of prominence and has become both a cliché and a euphemism in such uses. 



An idiot savant is a mentally retarded person with one incredibly well-developed mental ability, such as doing complicated mathematics at lightning speed or memorizing complex material effortlessly. 





　

Self-centered, avaricious Californian Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is informed that his long-estranged father has died. Expecting at least a portion of the elder Babbitt's $3 million estate, Charlie learns that all he's inherited is his dad's prize roses and a 1949 Buick Roadmaster. 



Discovering that the $3 million is being held in trust for an unidentified party, Charlie heads to his home town of Cincinnati to [as]certain who that party is. It turns out that the beneficiary is Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman), the autistic-savant older brother that Charlie never knew he had. 



Able to memorize ream[s] of trivia and add, subtract, multiply, and divide without a second's hesitation, Raymond is otherwise incapable of function[ing] as a normal human being. 



avaricious

貪婪的,貪得無厭的

ream[s]

擴大,挖通;擠出

令,二十刀 (紙張計數單位, 以前為480張, 現為500或516張)





erudite

polymath

Force of July: An idiosyncratic [polymath] turns delicate whimsy into a heartfelt story of us.

The inclusive title of [polymath] Miranda July's first feature film is [apt] for a multimedia artist who has often sought to forge virtual communities through her work.

dunce

symposium

A symposium in the "men are pigs" school of gender relations

polemic 

controversial argument

elevates "Descent" beyond case study and into the realm of [bomb]-throwing polemic.

moot

Criticisms of this as disgusting or depraved are [moot]

the critics' need to attack Cavani as historically [inaccurate] become moot

Crypto