# cognoscente
## English
### Alternative forms

* conoscente (rare)

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /kɒnjəˈʃɛnti/, /ˌkɒnjəˈʃɛnti/
* (US) IPA: /ˌkɑɡnəˈʃɛnti/, /ˌkɑnjəˈʃɛnti/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Homophone: cognoscenti

### Noun

cognoscente (plural cognoscenti)
* (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, →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, →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!

#### Related terms

* cognition
* cognizance
* cognoscent

#### Translations
## Italian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /koɲ.ɲoʃˈʃɛn.te/
* Rhymes: -ɛnte
* Hyphenation: co‧gno‧scèn‧te

### Participle

cognoscente (plural cognoscenti)
* (obsolete) present participle of cognoscere

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

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

### Adjective

cognoscente m or f (masculine and feminine plural cognoscentes)
* cognitive

### Further reading

* “cognoscente”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10