Bald Eagle, I would be interested in the rest of your take on that book, Steven Pinker is one strange thinker. Also have consulted a linguist friend of mine, who thinks of maven as someone, not necessarily female, who THINKS they know a lot about something and won't shut up about it, a self-styled (soi-disant) expert. The dictionaries do say Expert, though, as well as agreeing to the talking about. And both pronunciations are acceptable although the one that rhymes with Raven is more common. So after all this, I go back to my original synonym of AUTHORITY (in the sense of expert who shares their expertise).