Dictionary

shrewdness en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃɹuːdnəs/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Middle English schrewed Proto-Germanic *-in- Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti Proto-Germanic *-ōną Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse Middle English schrewednesse English shrewdness Inherited from Middle English schrewednesse. By surface analysis, shrewd + -ness.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The quality of being shrewd.
   • At the centre of Stalin’s superiority over his competitors was certainly his intense will, just as Napoleon ranked what he called ‘moral fortitude’ higher in a general than genius or experience. When Milovan Djilas said to Stalin during the Yugoslav-Soviet discussions in Moscow during the war that the Serbian politician Gavrilović was ‘a shrewd man’, Stalin commented, as though to himself: ‘Yes, there are politicians who think shrewdness is the main thing in politics. . . .’⁴⁴ His was a will-power taken to a logical extreme. There is something non-human about his almost total lack of normal restraints upon it. 1968, Robert Conquest, “The Purge Begins”, in The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties, Macmillan Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 75:
   • A man with less worldly shrewdness would never have seen how things really stood; a man with less pliability could never have adapted himself to them. It must always be remembered, that his whole administration was one long struggle: he had to maintain his master on the throne, and himself in the ministry; and this was done by sheer force of talent. 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Interview”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 245:
2. (collective, countable, uncountable) A group of apes.
   • Larry was dragged off by a shrewdness of apes (a group of apes is called a shrewdness) 2018, Bob Leszczak, Single Season Sitcoms of the 1990s, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, page 186:
   • A shrewdness of gibbons will sing together very loudly. 2012, Streak of Tigers: Animal Groups in the Jungle, Abdo Publishing:
   • The ape's own shrewdness inhabits the first tree, and a rival shrewdness inhabits the second 2023, Brandon R. Brown, Julia Schaletzky, Sharing Our Science, MIT Press, page 223:

Forms