cognoscente

English

WOTD – 27 November 2008

Etymology

From obsolete Italian cognoscente (modern Italian conoscente) from Latin cognōscere (to know).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /kɒnjəˈʃɛnteɪ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌkɑɡ.nəˈʃɛn.ti/, /ˌkɑn.jəˈʃɛn.ti/
  • (file)
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  • Homophone: cognoscenti

Noun

cognoscente (plural cognoscenti)

  1. (often in the plural) Someone possessing superior or specialized knowledge in a particular field.
    Synonyms: connoisseur, maven
    • 1998, Marc J. Seifer, chapter 42, in Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius, →ISBN, page 397:
      At night, as creative author, the cognoscente sketched out the first draft of his expanded autobiography.
    • 2011, Patrick Spedding; James Lambert, “Fanny Hill, Lord Fanny, and the Myth of Metonymy”, in Studies in Philology, volume 108, number 1, page 117:
      In the latter case — if only a handful of people knew the term — it would have been pretty pointless for Cleland to name his protagonist Fanny when practically nobody was likely to get the joke, not even cognoscenti such as Grose.
    • 2019 May 11, Farah Nayeri, “Venice Biennale’s Top Prize Goes to Lithuania”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:
      The Biennale can be daunting for those who are not art cognoscenti or participants in the art world.
    • 2020 December 30, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Cut HS2 eastern leg, says NIC?”, in Rail, page 3:
      And by the way, yes I AM inventing the HS2E acronym, because few outside the HS2 cognoscenti understand all that 'Phase' stuff!

Translations


Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /koɲ.ɲoʃˈʃɛn.te/
  • Rhymes: -ɛnte
  • Hyphenation: co‧gno‧scèn‧te

Participle

cognoscente (plural cognoscenti)

  1. (obsolete) present participle of cognoscere

Spanish

Adjective

cognoscente (plural cognoscentes)

  1. cognitive

Further reading

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