callidus

Astutus or in old Latin astus (from ἀκή, acuere), and callidus, denote cunning, more in an intellectual sense, as a mark of cleverness; astutus, indeed, acuteness in the invention and execution of a secret project, synonymous with solers; but callidus (from κάλλος), sharp-sightedness in judging of a complicated question of conduct, or worldly wisdom, as the consequence of a knowledge of mankind, and of intercourse with the world, synonymous with rerum peritus, as judicious, and, in its degenerate signification, crafty, like κερδαλέος; on the other hand, vafer and versutus denote cunning in a moral sense, as a mark of dishonesty, and, indeed, vafer (ὑφή), adroitness in introducing tricks, particularly in judicial affairs, as the tricks of a lawyer, like πανοῦργος; versutus (ἀρτυτός), versatility in dissimulation, and in the art of getting out of a scrape by some means or other; in opp. to simplex, Cic. Fin. iv. 25, like στροφαῖος. Plin. Ep. vii. 6. Juvenis ingeniosus, sed parum callidus. Cic. Brut. 48. Callidus, et in capiendo adversario versutus. (iii. 220.)

1. Sapiens (from σήπω) is the person who chooses right objects, from ennobling views, and pursues them with quietness of mind; prudens and callidus denote the person who chooses right means, and regulates them with circumspection; prudentia is a natural judiciousness, pervading a man’s whole nature: calliditas, an acquired knowledge of the world and of men, gained by experience and practice. Cic. Fr. Scaur. 5. Hominis prudentis natura, callidi usu, doctrina eruditi. 2. Prudens is the person who has accurate practical views, in opp. to stultus; scitus, who has tact, mother-wit, and the faculty of combination; solers, who possesses practical genius and inventive power; cordatus, who has his head in the right place, in opp. to excors; catus, who discovers and knows secret means and ways. (v. 114.)