connaisseur

plural connaisseurs

1. A specialist of a given field, especially in one of the fine arts or in a matter of taste: a connoisseur.

   The support of Mr. Albert Igoin, a Spinoza reader and connaisseur of long date, is particularly appreciated.

   1994, Yirmiyahu Yovel, Gideon Segal, editors, Spinoza on Knowledge and the Human Mind: Papers Presented at the Second Jerusalem Conference, page xii

   3 more examples

   The gallery of Prince Valsavoja contains about 100 pictures several of which deserve the attention of the artist and connaisseur.

   1847, L. Piale (publisher), Guide to Naples and Sicily, Part I: Naples, page 42

   They pass their Sundays agreeably, in complete repose: seated outside their doors, dressed in the best clothes, and displaying, with serene satisfaction, the many rings, pendants, and huge earrings of rare beauty, inherited for many past generations, and which possess an individual character that the connaisseur at once recognises.

   1890, Hamilton Aïdé, “Manners and Customs of Sicily in 1890” in James Knowles, editor, The Nineteenth Century: a monthly review (July–December 1890), page 579

   But it needed a connaisseur of Roman law, namely Wolfgang Ernst, Bonn/Cambridge, to remind me that justum facere is the common root of Recht-Fertigung and justification.

   2004, Arthur Hartkamp, Carla Joustra, Towards a European Civil Code: Third Fully Revised and Expanded Edition, Kluwer Law International, footnote, page 159

   Synonyms: connoisseur