Sage

The term "sage" encompasses a wide array of meanings, from culinary herbs and fictional characters to software and scientific organizations. In botany, the name primarily refers to Salvia officinalis, a small evergreen subshrub widely cultivated as a culinary herb. This plant belongs to the large genus Salvia, whose members are commonly called sages. Beyond this genus, other plants also bear the name, including Teucrium scorodonia (wood sage), used for flavoring beverages, and several shrubs in the genus Leucophyllum (figwort family), often called sages. The genus Artemisia (composite family) includes species referred to as sage or sagebrush. The entire mint, deadnettle, or sage family is known botanically as Lamiaceae. In the arts, "Sage" appears as a fictional character in Marvel Comics, the Canadian TV series Dark Oracle, the show Hot Wheels Battle Force 5, the anime Shuffle!, and The Vampire Diaries (season 3). It is also the name of a living tumbleweed in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Groups of sages appear in The Legend of Zelda, while the Toad Sage and Sage of the Six Paths are figures in Naruto. The term also describes a form of literary non-fiction popular in the Victorian era. In business, Sage Group is a British multinational enterprise software company, while Sage Appliances is a European subsidiary of the Australian Breville Group. SAGE Publishing is an American publishing house. Organizations using the acronym include Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) advising the World Health Organization, and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) in the British government. In science and technology, SAGE stands for the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, NORAD’s radar coordination computers, and for Serial Analysis of Gene Expression, a molecular biology technique. SageMath is free mathematics software, and Sage 300 and Sage 50 are enterprise management and accounting programs. The term also denotes a grey-green color resembling dried sage leaves.