Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

How do you pronounce Cognoscente?

In my head, I always read it as "Cog-no-es-scent" or "Cog-nes-scent". But then I was looking at the spelling the other day, and I have no bloody idea how it's actually pronounced! And since we're on the subject, what does it mean anyway?

P.S. I love that everyone uses the nickname Coggers. I wish I could have a cool nickname like that.

It is Spanish, and means "knowing." Pronounce it "Cog-no-cent-eh."

Ooh...I think I just felt my horizons being broadened. Very cool.

(I obviously don't speak Spanish.)

You should. It is an awesome language.

I always pronounce it in the Italian manner: Con-yo-sent-ay.

And think of it as a "connoisseur".

I know that Coggers himself has answered this somewhere, but I am too lazy to do more than a cursory search.

C is for wrote:I know that Coggers himself has answered this somewhere, but I am too lazy to do more than a cursory search.

Hmm...perhaps I should have searched the archives. Whoops.

It is the English singular form of the word cognoscenti. It has identical forms in Italian and Spanish because it is derived completely from Latin.

co·gno·scen·te (kŏn'yə-shěn'tē, kŏg'nə-)
n. pl. co·gno·scen·ti (-tē)
A person with superior, usually specialized knowledge or highly refined taste; a connoisseur.

[Obsolete Italian, from Latin cognōscēns , cognōscent- , present participle of cognōscere , to know ; see cognition .]

cognoscente
1778, from It. cognoscente , Latinized from conoscente "connoisseur," lit. "knowing man," from L. cognoscentum , prp. of cognoscere "to know" (see cognizance).

I say "cog-no-SEN-tay" but I'm familiar with the word from Italian, where the "gn" is pronounced the same as a Spanish ñ.

So, everyone who pronounces it "cognizant" is wrong.

Now you know! And knowing (being cognizant!) is half the battle!

P.S. Claudio saddled me with that nickname and I've always hated it. "Coggers" doesn't sound like a scholar, it sounds like a mincing, punctilious grandfather clock.

Cognoscente wrote:P.S. Claudio saddled me with that nickname and I've always hated it. "Coggers" doesn't sound like a scholar, it sounds like a mincing, punctilious grandfather clock.

Hmm...that's not quite what I would've pictured. If anything, it makes me think of bike parts. And bike parts make me happy

Meh. I still like it.

Cognoscente wrote:P.S. Claudio saddled me with that nickname and I've always hated it. "Coggers" doesn't sound like a scholar, it sounds like a mincing, punctilious grandfather clock.

Eh eh eh. I think I've called you that more than my fair share of times.

But I've always said it COG-nuh-scent.

In my heart, however, you'll always be Coggers.