Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bright, knowledgeable, aware.

1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 220: Me heap savvy. Most Injun he only savvy moon.
1905		K. Inglewood Patmos 124: ‘How very savvy of you to think of that,’ he said [OED].
1927		(con. 1918) J.W. Thomason Red Pants 42: That’s the way they’ll come, if there’s one savvy soldier among ’em.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 164: ‘Hi-yah,’ said Jimmy the Pat, ‘me savvy man got plenty money.’.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 175: He wanted to see how savvy the priest was.
1960		H.S. Thompson letter 11 Sept. in Proud Highway (1997) 229: And I would reply in my cool and savvy way: ‘Well, daddio...’.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 37: He’s a very savvy guy. He knows what he’s doing.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 81: The high point of Chemo’s municipal career was his savvy trashing of local zoning laws.
1998		Source Oct. 116: A savvy prostitute who loves her work.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 35: This office full of savvy pros.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 173: It wasn’t savvy to let inmates give me a nickname.
2017		V. McDermid Insidious Intent (2018) 150: ‘Even the most tech-savvy person [...] doesn’t realise how far technology has come’.
2018		G. Gilmore Class Act [ebook] [T]oo savvy to give something for nothing.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 44: Not as tough, but a lot more tech-savvy.