Saunt

First Appearance and Context

An in-world dictionary entry (4th edition, A.R. 3000) defines "Saunt" as a term of veneration for great thinkers, almost always posthumously. The entry traces its acceptance to the Millennial Orth Convox and notes the long history of spelling, pronunciation, and stone-carving practices surrounding the term. Related historical notes also connect specific faculties within a concent to their patron saunts.

Role and function

Saunt is an honorific used by members of the mathic world, especially the Avout, to designate revered thinkers. Usage is typically posthumous and signals canonical esteem within mathic tradition. The title is frequently attached to personal names (e.g., "Saunt Taunga"), indicating a figure whose work or example is held up for study and emulation. Institutions may be named for such figures, as with the Concent of Saunt Edhar.

In everyday speech within the mathic world the word can also stand alone as a common noun (e.g., "a Saunt"), and avout explicitly frame it as a distinction not everyone can attain—underscoring the selectivity and esteem implied by the title. On occasion admirers may apply it informally to living figures, though such usage is debated and not generally recognized as canonical while the person lives.

Orthography and Variants

Historically, stone inscriptions employed uppercase lettering, rendering the word as "SAVANT" or, when space was tight, as an abbreviation "ST." During periods of declining standards following the Third Sack, confusion between the letters U and V became common (the "lazy stonecarver" problem), giving rise to forms like "SAUANT." Over time, lower-case "saunt" became accepted usage; "sant" is still deprecated in formal contexts. In written prose, "St." may be used as an abbreviation for any of these.

Usage notes: Among avout in large gatherings, speakers themselves sometimes contrast the older pronunciation/spelling "savant" with the now‑standard "saunt," and may treat "savant" as old‑fashioned or idiosyncratic. Institutional names that once incorporated "Savant" are commonly spoken as "Saunt" in current usage (for example, a concent named for Edhar is generally said as "Saunt Edhar"). Edharians are noted for conserving the older form in their own speech, which can draw gentle correction—or laughter—when heard in broader assemblies.

Relationships and references

• Patronage and faculties: In a historical reference, the Syntactic Faculty at a concent is venerated under its patron saunt—Saunt Proc for the Syntactic Faculty of the Concent of Saunt Muncoster—while its counterpart, the Semantic Faculty of the same concent, honors Saunt Halikaarn as patron. This illustrates how the title binds schools of thought to exemplary figures.
• Community usage: The honorific appears in naming (e.g., concents or faculties named after saunts) and in rites and chronicles maintained within maths.
• Pedagogical examples: In current instruction the honorific is attached to figures such as Saunt Lesper (namesake of the coordinate axes used for basic orbital work) and Saunt Hemn (credited with introducing "Hemn spaces," or configuration spaces, in the early Praxic Age).
• Eponymous terms: The title also propagates into practical jargon. A senior Lorite identified a grounded, conductive mesh that blocks wireless signals from entering or leaving a room as a "Saunt Bucker’s Basket," an eponym pointing to Saunt Bucker.
• Disputed invocations: Orders may invoke particular saunts to frame arguments. In one discussion a speaker presented a Matarrhite authority styled "Saunt Atamant"; he later admitted to fictionalizing key details, underscoring that the honorific’s application can be rhetorical and subject to challenge. See also the Matarrhites for context.

Current Status

The term is in active use within mathic culture and New Orth. Spelling and pronunciation vary by tradition, but "Saunt" and its lower-case form "saunt" are standard; abbreviated "St." persists in inscriptions and writing. "Sant" remains deprecated.