Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who has special knowledge or experience; an expert.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A self-styled expert in a given field.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Yiddish meyvn, from Hebrew mēbîn, active participle of hēbîn, to understand, derived stem of bîn, to discern; see byn in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Yiddish מבֿין (meyvn, "know-it-all"), from Hebrew מֵבִין (mevín, "one who understands, connoisseur, expert").

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Examples

  • SAFIRE: Well, language maven, and maven, of course, is a Yiddish word for connoisseur.

    CNN Transcript Apr 27, 2008 2008

  • The word maven Luntz is a sharp character, but he's more interested in "message development" than in searching for truth.

    Slate Magazine 2010

  • Rachael Ray, the ever-perky talk show host/” 30-Minute Meal” maven, is upset over rumors about her marriage being on the rocks.

    Rachael Ray Gets Another Food Network Show 2007

  • Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal Ferrari FF: Sort of cool, sort of not One of the more endearing acts of journalism I've seen was William Safire's occasional "On Language" mea culpa, a column in which the famed word maven would admit to errors and misjudgments—throwing himself on the pikes of the punctilious, as he might say.

    A Showroom of Regrets: What I Got Wrong in 2011 Dan Neil 2011

  • A "maven" is a gatherer of information and impressions, and so is often the first to pick up on new or emerging trends.

    Gary Liberson, PhD: Networking for Innovation PhD Gary Liberson 2011

  • A "maven" is a gatherer of information and impressions, and so is often the first to pick up on new or emerging trends.

    Gary Liberson, PhD: Networking for Innovation PhD Gary Liberson 2011

  • And he took what may have been a swipe at fellow word maven William Safire for putting the phrase "nattering nabobs of negativism" into the vice president's mouth.

    NBC News Correspondent Was Tart-Tongued Grammar Guru 2010

  • Since we set this one loose on Twitter -- with six-word maven Mary Elizabeth Williams immediately replying wit "From ABC to PYT to RIP." -- yesterday, we've had some great responses.

    Larry Smith: Contest: Michael Jackson's Six-Word Obit 2009

  • Thank goodness I have my very own style maven aka my sister.

    Fashion Victim | Her Bad Mother 2007

  • Anonymous said ... maven, that is a good point about children and families vs. institutions.

    Get in on Life... 2007

Comments

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  • A Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew מבין - one who understands

    July 24, 2008

  • Steven Pinker uses the term "The Language Mavens" to describe to newspaper columnists who declare themselves experts on language and stalwarts against change.

    July 27, 2008

  • Pinker's use of the term is, in my view, unnecessarily dismissive, and somewhat polemic. In what I think of as a kind of "smear 'n sneer" attack, he paints all language mavens as rabid, reactionary prescriptivists, not to be taken seriously. Though I admire Pinker, and enjoy his writing on language, he does have a tendency to present the position of those who disagree with him in an exaggeratedly negative light. Because Pinker is hyper-articulate and writes with considerable wit, his distortions can be remarkably persuasive. But the reader should take care not to mistake amusing verbal pyrotechnics for reasoned argument.

    In his book "The Tipping Point", Malcolm Gladwell made frequent use of the term maven, but in the context of Gladwell's book, it had generally positive connotations.

    July 27, 2008

  • My experience with linguists is that they generally speak in a derogatory manner about prescriptivists. Language is constantly evolving, difficult to predict, and often difficult to understand. My understanding of the chapter in The Language Instinct is that he is directly criticizing prescriptivism in general, with the Mavens as the focal point of his derision.

    July 28, 2008

  • first came across this in connection with aficionados of apple compters mac mavens

    December 6, 2008

  • an expert, yes; but a person who also shows a personal interest in

    a subject and a liking for it

    May 17, 2009

  • Source language is Yiddish

    June 8, 2009

  • This word was chosen as Wordnik word of the day.

    November 11, 2009

  • I get the feeling that, even though it's not a gendered word, maven is used more often to describe women, maybe because it rhymes with maiden? Pet theory, anyway.

    January 26, 2016