This week’s theme
Which came first: the noun or the verb?

This week’s words
transect
surfeit
reconnoiter
traject
interpose

“A word after a word after a word is power.” ~Margaret Atwood
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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(ree-kuh-NOI-tuhr, rek-uh-)

MEANING:

verb tr., intr.: To explore or scout an area for gathering information.
noun: An act of reconnoitering.

ETYMOLOGY:

From obsolete French reconnoître, from Latin recognoscere, from re- (again) + gnoscere (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know), which is also the source of know, recognize, acquaint, ignore, diagnosis, notice, normal, agnostic, incognito, connoisseur, cognize, anagnorisis (the moment of recognition or discovery), and prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces). Earliest documented use: for verb 1705, for noun 1781.

USAGE:

“A river voyage is an easy way to reconnoitre a remote region.”
Sarah Nicholson; Just Around the Bend; Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia); Feb 24, 2019.

“A quick reconnoiter found no kind of habitat, and little of anything made for human hands.”
C Stuart Hardwick; Dangerous Company; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (New York); Mar/Apr 2019.

See more usage examples of reconnoiter in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: