maven

See also: MAVEN

English
WOTD – 5 October 2023

Etymology

From Yiddish מבֿין (meyvn, “connoisseur, expert, know-it-all”), from Hebrew מֵבִין (mevín, “one who understands, connoisseur, expert”), from הֵבִין (hevín, “to understand”). The word is said to have been popularized by its use in an advertising campaign for Vita Herring launched in the United States in 1964, which had a character called the “beloved [herring] maven” promoting the product.[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmeɪvn̩/
  • (General American) enPR: māvən, IPA(key): /ˈmeɪv(ə)n/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪvən
  • Merriam-Webster–style: ma‧ven; Oxford2014-style: maven (fewer than 6 letters, non-compound)

Noun

maven (plural mavens)

  1. (chiefly US) An expert in a given field; also, a person who is interested in and knowledgeable about a particular activity or thing; an aficionado.
    Synonyms: cognoscente, connoisseur; see also Thesaurus:skilled person
    Antonyms: see Thesaurus:beginner
    • 2003, Joseph H. Boyett, Jimmie T. Boyett, “All You Need is Buzz”, in The Guru Guide to Marketing: A Concise Guide to the Best Ideas from Today’s Top Marketers, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 207:
      Connectors know people—lots of people. Mavens know about things. They know, or find out first, what is going on. Connectors, says [Malcolm] Gladwell, need mavens to tell them what to buzz about.
    • 2006 January 23, Virginia Robbins, “Opinion: Eight Steps to Leadership”, in Dan Tennant, editor, Computerworld: The Voice of IT Management, volume 40, number 4, Framingham, Mass.: Computerworld, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 19, column 2:
      Besides an executive sponsor, you need to find a technology maven, someone within the company who understands the new technology. A maven, as defined in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, is a person who has both information and the social skills to pass it along. The challenge in a situation such as this one is that the maven might be outside of IT.
    • 2010, Rachel Davis Mersey, “Paying for It All”, in Can Journalism Be Saved?: Rediscovering America’s Appetite for News, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, part 3 (A New Model of Journalism), page 118:
      The goal for any media company is to be a maven—and therefore highly adept at using multiple channels of social media communication well.

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Translations
person who is interested in and knowledgeable about a particular activity or thing — see aficionado

References
  1. “maven, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “maven, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Danish

Noun

maven c

  1. definite singular of mave
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