cognoscente meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

cognoscente

noun

UK /kɒnjəˈʃɛnti/ · US /ˌkɑɡnəˈʃɛnti/

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

In plural, Often Someone possessing superior or specialized knowledge in a particular field.

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.1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XX, in Middlemarch […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II:
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.1904 November, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], Cabbages and Kings, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co.:

4 more examples

At night, as creative author, the cognoscente sketched out the first draft of his expanded autobiography.1998, Marc J. Seifer, chapter 42, in Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius, →ISBN, page 397:
This was before Wozniak—known among the cognoscenti as Woz—almost woke up the Pope by calling the Vatican on his famed illegal "blue box," before he invented the Apple II and helped launch the personal computer industry, and before he gave up his brilliant engineering career and became a public school teacher.1998 September, Gary Wolf, “The World According to Woz”, in Wired, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2011:
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.2011, Patrick Spedding, James Lambert, “Fanny Hill, Lord Fanny, and the Myth of Metonymy”, in Studies in Philology, volume 108, number 1, page 117:
The initial buzz it generated was among a certain section of the London cultural cognoscenti, the ex-punk crowd. They got it immediately.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: