Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to understand, to be aware of.

1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Scavey, sense, knowledge; ‘massa me no scavey’, master I don’t know, (negro language) perhaps from the French scavoir.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘The Negro and his Banjer’ in Collection of Songs II 88: One Negro, wi my banjer, / Me from Jenny come, / Wid cunning yiei / Me savez spy / De buckra world one hum.
1799		‘Buddy Quow’ in Lalla & D’Costa Lang. in Exile (1990) 110: Was matter Buddy Quow? / I ble Obesha bang you, / You tan no sabby how.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: The traps scavey where we hang out; the officers know where we live.
1816		M. Lewis 7 May in Journal of a West India Proprietor (1834) 254: My negar, my negar [...] why you stop? me tink, you savee well, who thief me?
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1828		Marly; Planter’s Life in Jamaica 210: Him no savey, massa.
1830		Memoirs of the Late Capt. Hugh Crow 137: Crow [...] you and me sabby each other long time. [ibid] 141: We no kill too much man all same you, and ’spose we black, and no sabby book.
1837		‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. May 477: I’m blowed! shipmates, if the horses didn’t seem to savvy the thing just as well as the man at the helm.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 283: savey, or sabby. (Corrupted from the Spanish saber, to know.) To know; to comprehend. A word of very extensive use wherever a Lingua Franca has been formed of the Spanish or Portuguese language in Asia, Africa, and America. It is used by the negroes in some of the Southern States.
1850		Calif. Courier 25 Sept. 2/4: Altho’ we no sabe Italian, ‘we like the system,’ as the boy said, and we can enjoy the singing [DA].
1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 26: You sabbee me, I sabbee you […].
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 206: SAVEY, to know [...] In the nigger and Anglo Chinese patois, this is sabby.
1862		Capt. Clutterbuck’s Champagne 179: Dat is de way to make a man sensible, trabel about; ’top at home, you no sabby nutting!
1863		T. Moser Mahoe Leaves 38: ‘Canton English’ [...] consists in being able to ring all the changes on the words ‘Savey,’ ‘Comprador,’ ‘number one’ and the everlasting ‘pigeon’.
1874		Manchester Courier 6 Apr. 3/2: ‘Savey’ [...] is current both as verb and noun — ‘Do you “savey” that?’ — ‘He has plenty of “savey”’.
1876		Butte (MT) Miner 8 June 1/3: P’raps you don’t call to mind the night when you and me snatched a fifteen-dollar sleeper when a drunk didn’t savy enough to pick up a split on a bet o’ thirty.
1878–9		A. Garcia Tough Trip Through Paradise (1977) 75: I thought you said you savvied Injuns.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Mar. 10/2: ‘"John no sabe that [...] John sabe kissee’.
1884		Leicester Chron. 9 Aug. 12/2: Ah! You no savvy!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 13/4: Sun Chong planked down the cash, and […] yelled out: ‘Well, I’m d—d! […] How fashion this? My no sabe. Inglish man catchee planty whisky allee week, planty lie, planty steal, then go long ’im God’s house Sunday makee all square. My no sabe that, too.’.
1888		W.B. Churchward Blackbirding In The South Pacific 15: We all savee better now.
1888		A. Trumble Mott Street Poker Club 5: ‘How you playee him?’ ‘Me sabby belly well’.
1892		F. Harris ‘Eatin’ Crow’ in Elder Conklin & Other Stories (1895) 133: Maybe you don’t sabe.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 July 1/3: We love him for his lack of curls, / His smart ‘no savee’ phrase, / His cunning tricks with white-skinned girls.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 59: All I saveys of the war is it’s ag’in the Mexicans.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 29/1: After about six weeks, when the Chinkie is supposed to ‘savvy’ all about the machinery, the white brother gets the sack on some paltry excuse.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 57: savey, i.e. Fr. savez. To understand.
1902		J. Speirs Proverbs of British Guiana 11: Bacra no boy, niggah no fool. Baccra no talk, niggah no sabby.
1903		A. Adams Log of a Cowboy 72: Girls, you know, sabe each other that way.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 235: I bet she seen Dawson settled, son, an’ could savvy the beach at Nome in the dark.
1905		St Louis Republican (MO) 8 Jan. 13/3: Ike and me both savvied that these few remarks had failed to extinguish the raging conflagration of distrust in the bosom of Aurora Bory.
1909		W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 70: I don’t rightly savez this thing at all.
1911		H. Lawson ‘Ah Soon’ in Roderick (1972) 771: When [I] wanted him to take and send the six pounds, he didn’t ‘savvy’ and he went on.
1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6/4: The cunning Celestial, despite his bland policy of ‘no savee’, quite comprehended.
1914		Amer. Mag. 77 June 31–5: You got money, no go jail, you no quit. I heap sabe. Bimeby you see.
1916		‘Taffrail Stand By! [ebook] ‘I savvy, sah,’ exclaimed the Chinaman, with a beatific smile slowly spreading over his countenance.
1925		D.B. Heyward Porgy (1945) 5: Yo’ bes sabe yo’ talk for dem dice. Dice ain’t gots no patience wid ’omen!
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 198: ‘Do ye savvy?’ I savvied, and settled down to gloomy reflection.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 42: I don’t savvy their lingo either.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 143: If there’s anything he can’t savvy, tell him in your own lingo.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 184: Bob savvied what I meant.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 31: ‘Held up,’ he advised his brother. ‘Masked men in alley. With guns.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Cause they savvy threat. They don’t savvy gangs.’.
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 73: The kid didn’t even look as if he savvied English.
1974–5		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 117: Your sister? Roe no savvy.
a.1985		‘The Open Book’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 112: He knows more of plows than he savies of cows.
1996		S. Frank Get Shorty [film script] That’s a federal officer, most likely DEA. He moves his leg look for the bulge. You savvy bulge? That’s his backup piece .
2002		Juha ‘Polari’ 🎵 on Polari [album] Beach in the screech. Alamo jo! / This dizzy hoofer gonna dowry jeebo. / Varda me fatcha, meshigner bona. / Savvy you gettin fericadooza.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 297/1: savvy 1. to know or understand.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 20: Fashion is a rapid-track route to personality, Raymond savvies this well.

2. as interrog.; often as do you savvy?

1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 26: […] this man sleepe you – you sabbee?
1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy III 56: You’re a man of the world, Starbottle, so am I? Sabe?
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 28 Oct. 3/2: [T]he more of the points shown the better will be the ‘biz.’ Sabe?
1886		S. Watson Wops the Waif 9/2: D’yer savy, cullry?
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 13 Dec. 2/1: Two husbands. ‘Did you enjoy any vacation this year?’ ‘Oh, yes.’ ‘I’m glad to hear that. Where did you go to?’ ‘Oh, I did not go away, but my wife did — savey’.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 45: You’ve got to quit; savey?
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 22 Dec. 178: I’m here to see fair play, do you savey?
1900		Sporting Times 9 June 3/3: You’ll simply pay the bill in full an’ drop in here to-morrow mornin’ an’ get yer money back. Savvee?
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 73: I mean to see that you act proper, the way an honest kid ought to do. Savvy?
1910		Magnet 27 Aug. 6: Close the door behind you, latch it [...] Savvy?
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 101: You an’ me stick together. Savve?
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 62: If you open your mouth, as sure as there’s a God above me I’ll wring your neck. Savez?
1920		F. Packard White Moll 19: Don’t kid yerself dat youse’re kiddin’ me into givin’ it to youse because youse have got a pretty smile an’ a sweet voice! Savvy?
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 198: ‘Do ye savvy?’ I savvied, and settled down to gloomy reflection.
1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 97: Look here, Becky, don’t you go round Gwenda’s place again, savvy?
1939		P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 47: Talk very fast an’ plenty otherwise I am goin’ to write my initials on your belly with bullets outa this gun. Sabe?
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 13: Allus begin with out buyin’, ’case we don’t have any coin left later. Sabe?
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 93: You only got to put up a good show, savee?
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 76: You got tight, that’s all. But no more, savvy?
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 246: Don’t get any ideas about ganging up on me [...] because it’ll be a different tale. Savvy?
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 92: Savvy English?
1960		A. Burgess Doctor Is Sick (1972) 53: At the moment we’re here in this hospital visiting this gentleman [...] You savvy that?
1964		A. Baraka Slave in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: Run off and get more liquor, sabe?
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 63: The only thing more fucked up than being here, is getting killed here. Savvy?
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 127: Understand? Savvy?
1998		I. Welsh Filth 320: You get that cunt or you’re getting it baith weys [...] Savvy?
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 297/1: savvy Savvy? means do you understand?
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 7: I trained troops [...] and sent them off to Saipan, savvy.