A '''maven''' (also ''mavin'' or ''mayvin'') is regarded by cohorts as a trusted expert in a particular field, and who seeks to pass his or her knowledge on to others. ==History== The word comes from the [[Yiddish]] ''meyvn'' and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] ''mevin'' (מבֿין), with the same meaning, which in turn derives from the Hebrew ''binah'', meaning ''understanding''. It was first recorded in [[English language|English]] around 1952, and popularized in the 1960s by a series of commercials for [[Vita Herring]] created by [[Martin Solow]], featuring "The Beloved Herring Maven.." Since the 1980s it has become more common since [[William Safire]] adepted it to describe himself ("the language maven"). The word is mainly confined to [[American English]], but had not yet appeared with the publication of the 1976 edition of Webster's Third New Int...
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