I encountered this word in an astronomy article in DISCOVER magazine. I checked, and found
it had been used in AWADtalk, twice erroneously, and never defined.
The errors consisted of not noticing the difference between singular and plural.

cognoscente (too bad the pron;unciation marks are garbage. The "g" is not hard = conyoshentay?
n.,
pl. ti orig. prp. of conoscere, to know < L cognoscere: see COGNITION6 a person with special knowledge in some field, esp. in the fine arts; expert

Cognoscente sounds like feminine plural.

M-W says it's obsolete Italian.

cognoscente

SYLLABICATION:
co·gno·scen·te
PRONUNCIATION:
AUDIO: kny-shnt, kgn- KEY
NOUN:
Inflected forms: pl. co·gno·scen·ti (-t)
A person with superior, usually specialized knowledge or
highly refined taste; a connoisseur.
ETYMOLOGY:
Obsolete Italian, from Latin cognscns, cognscent-,
present participle of cognscere, to know. See cognition.

cognscns, cognscent-, present participle of cognscere, to know
too many missing "o" to be typos...
I think that it has to be cognoscere, and so on...
And, Faldage, it is not feminine plural. The modern form " conoscente" is (used as a) noun, and has equal masculine and feminine form. The literal meaning is " the one who knows" , but now it is used as " an acquaintance"

The literal meaning is " the one who knows" , but now it is used as " an acquaintance"

Dunno that I agree with that one. I've only heard it used to refer to those "in the know," meaning experts, authorities in a field, "mavens." Perhaps with a sense of inflated self-importance thrown in. The cognoscenti are a cut above hoi polloi.

Having it mean "acquaintance" is a totally brand-new usage to me. Maybe I'm too much into Gilbert and Sullivan...

emanuela is Italian, so she's offering a different perspective.

I don't think in English we would think of it as an acquaintance, but we ain't the whole world.

we ain't the whole world.

Best watch where you say treasonous stuff like that, young lady.

Sadly, the world is full of ignoscentes.