Crossword clues for connoisseur
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Connoisseur \Con`nois*seur"\ (?; 277), n. [F. connaisseur, formerly connoisseur, fr. conna[^i]tre to know, fr. L. cognoscere to become acquainted with; co- + noscere, gnoscere, to learn to know. See Know, and cf. Cognizor.] One well versed in any subject; a skillful or knowing person; a critical judge of any art, particulary of one of the fine arts.
The connoisseur is ``one who knows,'' as opposed to the
dilettant, who only ``thinks he knows.''
--Fairholt.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. A specialist of a given field whose opinion is valued; especially in one of the fine arts, or in a matter of taste
WordNet
n. an expert able to appreciate a field; especially in the fine arts [syn: cognoscenti]
Wikipedia
A connoisseur ( French traditional (pre-1835) spelling of connaisseur, from Middle-French connoistre, then connaître meaning "to be acquainted with" or "to know somebody/something.") is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, cuisines, or an expert judge in matters of taste. In many areas the term now has an air of pretension, and may be used in a partly ironic sense, but in the art trade connoisseurship remains a crucial skill for the identification and attribution to individual artists of works, where documentary evidence of provenance is lacking. The situation in the wine trade is similar, for example in assessing the potential for ageing in a young wine through wine tasting.
A connoisseur is a person who has expert knowledge in matters of taste or the fine arts.
Connoisseur may also refer to:
In arts and media:
- Connoisseur Media, a US radio station holding company
- The Connoisseur (magazine), a periodical on fine art, collectables and antique furniture founded in 1901, closed in 1992
- The Connoisseur (newspaper), a London weekly 18th century newspaper
- The Connoisseur, a 1962 work by Norman Rockwell
- Connoisseur Society, a US audiophile classical and music jazz record label
Other uses:
- Connoisseur (Hi-Fi), a British manufacturer of Hi-Fi equipment
- Connoisseur Grammar School, a private school in Pakistan
- Connoisseur's Bakery, a bakery company in Northern Ireland
- The Connoisseur car, a long-distance passenger railway carriage
- Rover 75 Connoisseur, a British luxury motor car
Connoisseur was the brand name of the products manufactured by the British manufacturer of Hi-Fi Equipment Sugden and Co Ltd, more particularly turntables.
Usage examples of "connoisseur".
Once more he heard her recite with pride, and an Aberdonian accent so slight that only a connoisseur could have detected it, the words which Spenser had penned to celebrate an earlier marriage.
Just as the LP was invented for connoisseurs and audiophiles but spawned an entire industry, electronic mail grew first among the elite community of computer scientists on theARPANET, then later bloomed like plankton across the Internet.
When the girl handed me the pot, I tried to look like a connoisseur, opening several baggies and sniffing at their contents.
Since October it had been in the dark, cool storage-room, and Horace, like some old monkish connoisseur of wines who knows just when to bring up the bottles of a certain vintage, had chosen the exact moment in all the year when the vintage of the Bellflower was at its best.
The two moths fitted into its recesses would have drawn approving nods from people who were connoisseurs of bioelectronic craftsmanship.
Thus in the depopulated caravansary the little band of connoisseurs jealously bide themselves during the heated season, enjoying to the uttermost the delights of mountain and seashore that art and skill have gathered and served to them.
The Cavaliere Davila, a Neapolitan gentleman of gigantic stature and almost femininely gentle manners, a noted collector and connoisseur of majolica, gave his opinion on each article of importance.
The Saint Emilion was wholly authentic, although the Bordeaux region and its immediate neighbors had been replanted from gene banks as recently as 2330, when connoisseurs had decided that the native rootstocks had suffered too much deterioration in the tachytelic phase of ecospheric deterioration which had followed the environmental degradations of the Crash.
If he had inherited a million dollars twenty years ago he would have been a timeless and contented flaneur in a world of sleek penthouses, velvet smoking jackets, first editions, vintage wines, silk dressing gowns, and the conversation of connoisseurs.
When Milo died he left his fortune to Thurston, to establish the Thackeray Animal Clinic in Lockmaster, and to Thelma, to realize her dream of a private dinner club for connoisseurs of old movies.
A connoisseur would have named at once the one and only firm from which that costume could have come, and the hatter who supplied the soft green Tyrolian hat--for Jane scorned pith helmets--which matched it so admirably.
Among these relics of an age more happy in this respect than that of which we write, the connoisseur would readily have known the pencils of Titian, Paul Veronese, and Tintoretto--the three great names in which the subjects of St.
Caligula fancied himself a connoisseur and was also sentimentally attached to Apelles, the Philistine tragic actor, who wrote many of the pieces in which he played.
Ray Durham was getting in some extra hacks, with Wash and Boz looking on, less coaches than connoisseurs.
Speaking of food, English cuisine has received a lot of unfair criticism over the years, but the truth is that it can be a very pleasant surprise to the connoisseur of severely overcooked livestock organs served in lukewarm puddles of congealed grease.