Cognizant

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒɡnɪzənt/

Definitions

1. Having an understanding and awareness of specific details or circumstances
2. Being conscious and having knowledge about a particular fact or situation
3. Having mental recognition or comprehension of a certain state or condition

Etymology: Cognizant looks like a classical import, but English made it itself. The adjective was formed in English from "cognizance" plus the suffix "-ant", and the earlier noun "cognizance" had come into the language from Anglo-Norman and Old French. The adjective is a 19th-century formation, so it is younger than many readers would guess for a word with such a formal sound. The deeper ancestry runs through Latin. The Latin verb "cognoscere" meant "to get to know" or "to learn", and its present participle "cognoscentem" gave Old French "conoissant", the ancestor of modern French "connaissant". The English adjective did not come straight from that participle, though. It was built afresh on the English noun, so the French form is a relative rather than the direct source. The word is therefore a useful reminder that a term can look like a plain Latin borrowing while actually being a later English construction on a borrowed root.

Synonyms: aware, conscious, informed, mindful, knowledgeable

Antonyms: ignorant, unaware, oblivious, unconscious, uninformed