cognoscente

• conoscente (rare)

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɒnjəˈʃɛnti/, /ˌkɒnjəˈʃɛnti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑɡnəˈʃɛnti/, /ˌkɑnjəˈʃɛnti/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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• Homophone: cognoscenti

cognoscente (plural cognoscenti)

1. (often in the plural) Someone possessing superior or specialized knowledge in a particular field.

   Synonyms: connoisseur, maven

   • 1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XX, in Middlemarch […], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II:

     He is the painter who has been held to combine the most complete grace of form with sublimity of expression. Such at least I have gathered to be the opinion of cognoscenti.

   • 1904 November, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], Cabbages and Kings, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co.:

     He was a brilliant cosmopolite and a cognoscente of high rank; but, after all, he was of the same race and blood and instinct as this people.

   • 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.

   • 2018 August 19, Sean O’Hagan, quoting Irvine Welsh, “Irvine Welsh: ‘I thought Trainspotting would be a cult book, but not generation-defining’”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The initial buzz it generated was among a certain section of the London cultural cognoscenti, the ex-punk crowd. They got it immediately.

   • 2019 May 11, Farah Nayeri, “Venice Biennale’s Top Prize Goes to Lithuania”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     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!

• cognition
• cognizance

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

cognoscente (plural cognoscenti)

1. (obsolete) present participle of cognoscere

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /koɡnosˈθente/ [koɣ̞.nosˈθẽn̪.t̪e]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /koɡnoˈsente/ [koɣ̞.noˈsẽn̪.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ente
• Syllabification: cog‧nos‧cen‧te

cognoscente m or f (masculine and feminine plural cognoscentes)

1. cognitive

• “cognoscente”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28