People with superior, specialized knowledge about politics. The word was invented by William Safire for one of his farewell columns (How to Read a Column) on January 24, 2005. It is derived from cognoscenti, which the American Heritage Dictionary identifies as an obsolete Italian word meaning "A person with superior, usually specialized knowledge or highly refined taste; a connoisseur."
The tongue-in-cheek essay is deliberately pompous, and uses several cromulent or otherwise spurious terms such as hifalutin, swaydo, cui bono, and
Last updated: May 18, 2005.
