Cognoscente? Connoisseur? Aficionado? ? ‘In the know’ about wine. Photo: Multimotyl, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

There used to be an expression “the Greeks had a word for it,”  a coded comment, the ‘it’ being something that could not be openly expressed at the time of the conversation, rather than an allusion to a particular Greek word.

But if the Greeks did have a word for it, it would probably have been stolen by the English.

Yes, the English ‘borrow’ bucketsful of words from other languages and make them their own. This etymological appropriation means that it is much easier to find the right word in English (Or le mot juste, an appropriated French phrase, although this is not necessarily precisely the same thing.)

With a fatter dictionary and a simpler syntax, we linguistic plunderers also find it easier to describe objects more succinctly (‘my aunt’s pen,’ for example, rather than ‘la plume de ma tante‘.)

Cognoscente? Connoisseur? Aficionado? ? ‘In the know’ about (American) football. Photo: KeithJJ on Pixabay, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

These musings were prompted by recently bumping into the Italian word cognoscente (plural cognoscenti) which means a person/people of whom you are knowledgeable, i.e. acquaintance(s).  But in English the cognoscenti are those who are especially well informed.

We might also call them connoisseurs (from the French) or aficionados (from the Spanish), but again there are subtle differences in meaning, so we may think of the aficionado as an enthusiast without the depth of knowledge of the rather more formal connoisseur.

Cognoscente? Connoisseur? Aficionado? ? ‘In the know’ about theatre. Photo: Chris Hunkeler from Carlsbad, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons-

One thing is for certain: if you want to be ‘in the know’ about ‘convivial creativity,’ there’s no need to reach for an English dictionary. Click here and join us on one of the Watermill’s world-famous courses.

Inspiring tuition, warm hospitality, delicious food and wine, stunning locations and the convivial company of like-minded people.

Cognoscente? Connoisseur? Aficionado? ? ‘In the know’ about painting at the Watermill.