Latin Peeps Represent!

[demiurgent]

Folks who know from Latin:

I know that the Italian word 'cognoscenti' is derived from the Latin word cognosco. However, I've got a sense that 'cognoscenti' itself is also Latin. Is it? If not, what would the appropriate Latin word be for 'enlightened ones?'

Comments

[aquamarcia.livejournal.com]

I had a similiar issue when working on the name of my Vox blog (http://arete.vox.com/library/post/titular-thanks.html).