Her skirts brush the heap of geographical aids she was consulting earlier and left piled in a corner, since femmes savantes are rarely tidy: some rolled maps, a terrestrial globe and a huge leather-bound atlas fully a fifth of her height.
The roll-call of celebrated women expanded from the traditional saints, queens, Biblical heroines and aristocratic savantes to include middle-class bluestockings, actresses and other non-elite prodigies.
Origin
Mid 18th century: French, feminine of savant(see savant).