Word of the Day

noun, plural cognoscenti

Cognoscenti in the art world knew that most of the works being auctioned off were second-rate.

"The foreign-exchange cognoscenti have framed Friday's Bank of Japan meeting as one with potential to break the stubbornly strong Japanese currency." — From an article by Michael J. Casey in The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2012

"Cognoscente" and "connoisseur" are more than synonyms; they're also linguistic cousins. Both terms descend from the Latin verb "cognoscere," meaning "to know," and they're not alone. You might guess that "cognizance" and "cognition" are members of the "cognoscere" clan. Do you also recognize a family resemblance in "recognize"? Can you see through the disguise of "incognito"? Did you have a premonition that we would mention "precognition"? "Cognoscente" itself came to English by way of Italian and has been a part of our language since the late 1700s.

Test Your Vocabulary: What word can be traced back to Latin "dilectare" and means "a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge"? The answer is ...

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