connaisseuse

plural connaisseuses · alternative connoisseuse

1. feminineFemale equivalent of connaisseur.

   “You are right, Bocco,” answered Frampa, with the air of a connaisseuse who does not praise lightly.

   1888, Julian Corbett, “Kophetua the Thirteenth. A Romance.”, in Time: A Monthly Magazine of Current Topics, Literature, & Art, volume VIII, London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., […], XX (Players), page 613

   5 more examples

   ‘It is true, your eminence; for I not only saw it, but ate of it myself.’ ‘At whose table?’ ‘At the Comtesse de la Ferté’s. When cut into slices, it filled the air with a delicious fragrance, and was veined and clouded like the richest marble!’ ‘Madame de la Ferté is a connaisseuse,’ observed Mazarin.

   1857, “The Truffle-Hound”, in William Chambers, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts, volume VI, London: W. & R. Chambers […] and […] Edinburgh, page 245

   “You do look just like an angel, Miss Lucy,” Abby Dewitt asseverated, with the air of a connaisseuse in the article .

   a. 1862, Theodore Winthrop, Edwin Brothertoft, 3rd edition, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1862, page 260

   Save these and one fair-sized palm in the centre, all the other plants are ferns in infinite variety, Mrs. St. John being a connaisseuse in that branch of horticulture.

   1878 June, the Author of “Skeleton Keys,” &c., “Hunstead Priors”, in The Kentish Magazine: A Literary Monthly Miscellany for the County, number II, Maidstone: Burgiss-Brown, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., […], chapter IV (Filaments), page 90

   It was a declaration of much in little, and Marion, a connaisseuse of such speeches, absolved and accepted him with a kiss.

   1896 October, Tighe Hopkins, “Bicêtre”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume LXIV, New York, N.Y.: E. R. Pelton, […], page 457

   She had Leonardo for her visitor, and Titian for her portrait painter, and, to her honor as a connaisseuse, she recognized the talent of a Correggio when a Bembo, with all his assumption of art knowledge, passed him by unheeding.

   1900, Edwin Howland Blashfield, Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Italian Cities, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, part II, page 264