[a. L. acūmen, anything sharp; sharpness, point; f. acu-ĕre to sharpen.]
1. Sharpness of wit; quickness or penetration of perception; keenness of discrimination.
1531. Elyot, Governor, I. xv. § 4. Wherein is the chiefe sharpenes of witte, called in latin acumen.
1645. M. Casaubon, Orig. Cause of Temp. Evils, 54. Neither is the jest or acumen of them [epigrams] any wayes improved by it.
1678. Gale, Crt. of. Gentiles, III. 124. So penetrant an acumen, so profound soliditie.
1764. Reid, Inq. Hum. Mind, i. § 5. 102. The honour and reputation justly due to his metaphysical acumen.
1860. Motley, Netherlands (1868), I. ii. 54. Mysteries … which no political sagacity or critical acumen could have divined.
ǁ 2. Bot. A tapering point. Gray, Bot. Text-bk.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxxi. 475. Mercurialis has two subulate acumens or sharp points.
