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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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SAFIRE: Well, language maven, and maven, of course, is a Yiddish word for connoisseur.
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The word maven Luntz is a sharp character, but he's more interested in "message development" than in searching for truth.
Slate Magazine 2010
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Rachael Ray, the ever-perky talk show host/” 30-Minute Meal” maven, is upset over rumors about her marriage being on the rocks.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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Thank goodness I have my very own style maven aka my sister.
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Anonymous said ... maven, that is a good point about children and families vs. institutions.
Get in on Life... 2007
widget commented on the word maven
A Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew מבין - one who understands
July 24, 2008
seanahan commented on the word maven
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
sionnach commented on the word maven
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
seanahan commented on the word maven
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
garyth123 commented on the word maven
first came across this in connection with aficionados of apple compters mac mavens
December 6, 2008
JSpeyrer commented on the word maven
an expert, yes; but a person who also shows a personal interest in
a subject and a liking for it
May 17, 2009
sgordonson commented on the word maven
Source language is Yiddish
June 8, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the word maven
This word was chosen as Wordnik word of the day.
November 11, 2009
TankHughes commented on the word maven
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