Thunderstruck wrote:
He flipped up a few skirts as he bounced through a crowd of girls
waiting at a crosswalk, surveying the panties with a
connoisseur's {?}eye, then sped on down the street.
Having read many stories, I find myself faced with a dilemma with
this word. Being french, my inner self tells me that the right word
is 'connaisseur', meaning 'one who knows' mostly in specific art
forms. However, the sheer number of times I have seen this word in
use point towards the fact that it might be part of the English
language. Correct if not so.
I'm happy to change it. I trust a native speaker more than my dumbass
spellcheck program.
As it happens, in English this word is indeed spelled "connoisseur". My
handy electronic dictionary (which is not what I'm relying on for
confirmation, I know the word quite well from my own experience) cites
it as being rooted in the French "connaisseur", but it is not spelled
the same way.