20090923Word of the Day

junli

cognoscente

\kon-yuh-SHEN-tee; kog-nuh-; -SEN-\ , noun:
1.A person with special knowledge of a subject; a connoisseur.
名词 n. 【意】
1.鉴赏家;评鉴家
2.(艺术、文学方面的)博学者

Quotes:
However, I thought it well to acquaint myself with the latest scientific thinking, so as not to write a tale that would embarrass me among the cognoscenti.
~Ronald Wright, A Scientific Romance
In the early 1600s, however, beliefs that decried curiosity and restricted information about the "secrets" of nature to a handful of cognoscenti were under attack.
~Tom Shachtman, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold
Greenspan, to his credit, tells the truth about what he does, but until now, he has done it in a way that only the cognoscenti can understand.
~Paul Krugman, "Labor Pains", New York Times Magazine, May 23, 1999

Origin:
Cognoscente derives from the Obsolete Italian, from Latin cognoscens, cognoscent-, present participle of cognoscere, "to know."