\Gnos"tic\, a.
1. Knowing; wise; shrewd. [Old Slang]
         I said you were a gnostic fellow.     --Sir W.
                                               Scott.
2. (Eccl. Hist.) Of or pertaining to Gnosticism or its
   adherents; as, the Gnostic heresy.

\Gnos"tic\, n. [L. gnosticus, Gr. ? good at knowing,
sagacious; as a n., man that claims to have a deeper wisdom,
fr. gignw`skein to know: cf. F. gnostique. See {Know}.]
(Eccl. Hist.)
One of the so-called philosophers in the first ages of
Christianity, who claimed a true philosophical interpretation
of the Christian religion. Their system combined Oriental
theology and Greek philosophy with the doctrines of
Christianity. They held that all natures, intelligible,
intellectual, and material, are derived from the Deity by
successive emanations, which they called Eons.