reconnoiter

WOTD - 19 September 2006    

English

Etymology

From French reconnoître (obsolete spelling of reconnaître), from Latin recognoscere (“to recognize”). Contrarily, there is also an obsolete 19th-century British English spelling reconnaitre (now reconnoitre).

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˌrɛkəˈnɔɪtə/, [ˌɹʷɛkəˈnɔɪ̯tʰə]
• (US) IPA: /ˌrɛkəˈnɔɪtɚ/, [ˌɹˠɛkəˈnɔɪ̯ɾɚ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Alternative forms

• (British, Canadian) reconnoitre

Verb

reconnoiter (third-person singular simple present reconnoiters, present participle reconnoitering, simple past and past participle reconnoitered)

1. (transitive, intransitive, military) To perform a reconnaissance (of an area; an enemy position); to scout with the aim of gaining information.

   Our scout will reconnoiter the path ahead of our troops.

Synonyms

• scout, survey

Translations

perform a reconnaissance

Chinese: Mandarin: 偵察 (zh), 侦察 (zh) (zhēnchá) Finnish: tiedustella (fi) French: reconnaître (fr) German: erkunden (de), kundschaften (de)

Hungarian: felderít (hu) Japanese: 偵察する (ja) (ていさつする, teisatsu-suru) Russian: разведывать (ru) (razvédyvat’), рекогносцировать (ru) (rekognoscírovat’) Ukrainian: розвідувати (uk) (rozviduvaty), рекогносцирувати (uk) (rekohnoscyruvaty), пластувати (uk) (plastuvaty)

Noun

reconnoiter (plural reconnoiters)

1. An act or instance of reconnoitering.

   The pilot reported the findings of his reconnoiter.

Translations

instance of reconnoitering

Norwegian: rekognosere (no) Russian: разведка (ru) (razvédka) f., рекогносцировка (ru) (rekognosciróvka) f. Ukrainian: розвідка (uk) (rozvidka) f., рекогнозцировка (uk) (rekohnoscyrovka) f., пласт (uk) (plast) m., пластування (uk) (plastuvannja) n.

Related terms

• recon
• recce
• reconnaissance

Anagrams

• reconnoitre