I've seen both used. I've also seen a very useful distinction made between them, which is rooted, um, in the roots of the words:
sentient: having senses; capable of experiencing sensations. From the same root as "senses" and "sensation", Latin sentīre. This is true of just about any animal creature as well as humans and fantasy non-humans.
sapient: intelligent; capable of knowledge at something near the human level. From Latin sapiens 'wise', as in our Linnæan species name, Homo sapiens, which I sometimes abbreviate to a more appropriate "Homo sap".
In these terms, there are a lot of sapient AIs in fiction. Sentience seems to me a bit less clear: would we say they have senses? I guess I'd have to say so. We hairless bipeds are both.
Now, both these definitions are from my own educated native fannish knowledge of English, checked with several good dictionaries. My understanding of sentient pretty well matches what I've found there. Sapient, though, is defined only as something like "wise or learned", not much in common current use. Google summarizes definitions as • Adjective: Wise, or attempting to appear wise. • Noun: A human of the species Homo sapiens. • Synonyms: wise - sage - sagacious - clever - sensible - intelligent
There are plenty of sentient creatures in the real world, but human-level intelligence only in humans,* so there's not much need or use for a word meaning "intelligent at or above human level, whether human or not". Note the Google definition of sapient (noun). I've been trying without success to remember where I saw it used this way in sf.
* At least as far as common knowledge and accepted reality go.
Respectfully submitted, Dr. Whom: Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-06-08 04:31 am (UTC)sentient: having senses; capable of experiencing sensations. From the same root as "senses" and "sensation", Latin sentīre. This is true of just about any animal creature as well as humans and fantasy non-humans.
sapient: intelligent; capable of knowledge at something near the human level. From Latin sapiens 'wise', as in our Linnæan species name, Homo sapiens, which I sometimes abbreviate to a more appropriate "Homo sap".
In these terms, there are a lot of sapient AIs in fiction. Sentience seems to me a bit less clear: would we say they have senses? I guess I'd have to say so. We hairless bipeds are both.
Now, both these definitions are from my own educated native fannish knowledge of English, checked with several good dictionaries. My understanding of sentient pretty well matches what I've found there. Sapient, though, is defined only as something like "wise or learned", not much in common current use. Google summarizes definitions as
• Adjective: Wise, or attempting to appear wise.
• Noun: A human of the species Homo sapiens.
• Synonyms: wise - sage - sagacious - clever - sensible - intelligent
There are plenty of sentient creatures in the real world, but human-level intelligence only in humans,* so there's not much need or use for a word meaning "intelligent at or above human level, whether human or not". Note the Google definition of sapient (noun). I've been trying without success to remember where I saw it used this way in sf.
* At least as far as common knowledge and accepted reality go.
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Whom: Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody