Astute
Etymology
From Latin "astutus" (crafty), from "astus" (cunning, cleverness). The root leans toward the sly end of intelligence: an astute person sees the angles, and the word keeps a faint flavor of self-interested cleverness.
adjective · /uh-STOOT/
Shrewdly perceptive, quick to grasp what serves one’s advantage.
What it names
Practical sharpness — the eye for how things really work and how to profit from it — rather than book-learning.
Example
It was an astute move to buy the failing supplier — she saw the value in its patents that no one else priced in.
Related idea
Astute stresses practical, advantage-seeking perception; sagacious stresses deep, far-seeing wisdom, so a con artist can be astute but never sagacious.
See also