Also conusant. [app. of modern introduction: not in Dictionaries of 18th c.; not in Todd’s Johnson 1818, nor in Webster 1828; in Craig 1847. Thus, prob. formed anew, directly from COGNIZANCE, COGNIZE; but it corresponds in form to OF. conisant, conusant pr. pple. Cf. COGNOSCENT.]
1. Having cognizance or knowledge (see COGNIZANCE 2); aware (of).
1820. Southey, Ode on Portrait of Bp. Heber. If the Saints in bliss Be cognizant of aught that passeth here.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), I. xxv. 499. The party shall be presumed conusant of the law … his ignorance shall not exempt him.
1879. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. ii. § 82. The following circumstance, of which the writer is personally cognizant.
b. Philos. That knows or cognizes.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., III. iii. § 27. Gassendi … gives as the best, a definition of truth little differing from Herbert’s, the agreement of the cognisant intellect with the thing known.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 54, note. If this cognition were that which apprehends objects, the soul would be cognizant.
2. Law. Having cognizance or jurisdiction (see COGNIZANCE 3); competent to deal judicially with a cause, crime, etc.
1847. in Craig.
