scout

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See also: Scout

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English scout, scoult, from Old French escoute (“action of listening”), verbal noun from escouter (“to listen, heed”), from Latin auscultō (“to listen”). The verb comes from the noun.[1]

Noun

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scout (plural scouts)

  1. A person sent out to gain and bring in tidings; especially, one employed in war to gain information about the enemy and ground.
    Synonyms: (obsolete) espial, (obsolete) espy
  2. An act of scouting or reconnoitering.
  3. A member of any number of youth organizations belonging to the international scout movement, such as the Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts of the United States.
  4. A person who assesses and/or recruits others; especially, one who identifies promising talent on behalf of a sports team.
    • 2018 January 1, Donald McRae, “The Guardian footballer of the year 2017: Juan Mata”, in the Guardian‎[1]:
      We have met twice this year and, during our first interview, Mata spoke evocatively when remembering how, having joined Real Oviedo aged 10 in 1998, he was given a previously unimaginable opportunity. Mata sat in a car park in 2003, when he was 14, and watched his father talking to a Real Madrid scout.
  5. A person employed to monitor rivals' activities in the petroleum industry.
  6. (Oxford University, modern) A housekeeper or domestic cleaner, generally female, employed by one of the constituent colleges of Oxford University to clean rooms; generally equivalent to a modern bedder at Cambridge University.
  7. (Oxford University, Harvard University, Yale University, historical) A domestic servant, generally male, who would attend (usually several) students in a variety of ways, including cleaning; generally equivalent to a gyp at Cambridge University or a skip at Trinity College, Dublin.
    • 1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], chapter I, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC:
      He has also been good enough to recommend to me many tradesmen who are ready to supply these articles in any quantities; each of whom has been here already a dozen times, cap in hand, and vowing that it is quite immaterial when I pay—which is very kind of them; but, with the highest respect for friend Perkins (my scout) and his obliging friends, I shall make some enquiries before "letting in" with any of them.
  8. (UK, cricket) A fielder in a game for practice.
  9. (historical, UK, up until 1920s) A fighter aircraft.
  10. (radiography) A preliminary image that allows the technician to make adjustments before the actual diagnostic images.
    • 2012, Ella A. Kazerooni, Baskaran Sundaram, Imaging of Lung Cancer, page 937:
      A scout topogram is initially performed during continuous table motion, generating an anatomic overview image similar to a conventional radiograph at the locked projection.
    • 2016, John L. Cameron, Andrew M. Cameron, Current Surgical Therapy, page 721:
      It consisted of injecting an iodinated contrast agent while a breast was compressed in one projection after a scout film, taking several sequential films, and subtracting them from the scout film.
    • 2018, Savvas Nicolaou, Mohammed F. Mohammed, Multi-Energy CT: The New Frontier in Imaging, page 643:
      Because of this FOV limitation, several institutions use a weight cutoff or a scout radiograph lateral diameter cutoff, though the exact cutoff threshold varies from institution to institution.
  11. (informal) Term of address for a man or boy.
    • 1983, Robley Wilson, Dancing for Men, page 124:
      "Listen, old scout," Mr. Osborn said solemnly, "you think New York is heartless, but that's not what it is."
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To explore a wide terrain, as if on a search.
    Synonyms: survey, reconnoiter
  2. (transitive) To observe, watch, or look for, as a scout; to follow for the purpose of observation, as a scout.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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Of North Germanic origin. Compare Old Norse skúta, skúti (“taunt”), Middle English scoute (“a wretch, rascal, rogue”); thus may be related to English shout.

Verb

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scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)

  1. (transitive) To reject with contempt.
    to scout an idea or an apology
  2. (intransitive) To scoff.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 45, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.
Translations
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Etymology 3

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From Middle English scoute, skoute (also schoute, shoute, schuyt), from Middle Low German schûte or Middle Dutch schute; or possibly from Old Norse skúta (“a small craft or cutter”).

Noun

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scout (plural scouts)

  1. (dated) A swift sailing boat.
    • 1660, Samuel Pepys, diary entry 18th May 1660:
      So we took a scout, very much pleased with the manner and conversation of the passengers.

Etymology 4

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Uncertain. The Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) groups the verb scout, scoot (/skut/, regionally /skʌut/) "cause liquid to gush" and a noun scout "sudden gush or flow of water, as from a spout or over rock", and consider it of Scandinavian origin, perhaps related to Old Norse skjóta (“shoot”);[2] however, scout (or scut) was formerly also found as a word for "flow of water over rocks, waterfall; ridge or overhang of rocks" in various northern and central English dialects, and there suggested to be of Norse origin, but in this case related to Old Norse skúti (“cave formed by jutting rocks”); it is possible that noun and the verb are unrelated.[3] It is also unclear whether the noun meaning "guillemot" is related; it might derive from their habit of pouring forth excrement.

Verb

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scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)

  1. (Scotland) To pour forth a liquid forcibly, especially excrement; to cause a liquid to gush.

Noun

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scout (plural scouts)

  1. The guillemot.
References
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  1. ^ “scout”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ “scout” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
  3. ^ 1879, Specimens of English Dialects: God drawned the praud children of Adam; the rainbow is a witness; Raven-scout2 and Beetham-fell to this day shew us the marks of the flead. […] 2 I dont[sic] know the derivation of this word, which is a common name for a great precipice. Our waterfall in the river is called sometimes the force, sometimes the scout. The steep ridges of rocks on Beetham-fell, are called scouts, the fell beneath them Underlaade, that is Underload. Raven-scout is the highest-point of a ridge of rocks in Holme-park, adjoining to Farleston-knot, frequented by ravens, and sometimes visited by eagles." The English Dialect Dictionary, saying already a century ago that the word was obsolete or obsolescent, defines it as a "a high rock" instead, and suggests a relation to Old Norse skúti (“cave formed by jutting rocks”). The OED speculates that scout might mean "high overhanging rock". Compare the Kinder Scout.

See also

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References

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Further reading

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English scout.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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scout m (plural scouts)

  1. a scout, a boy scout or girl scout
    Synonym: padvinder
  2. (sports) a talent scout
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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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scout m (plural scouts)

  1. scout, boy scout

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology

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Clipping of boyscout.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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scout m or f by sense (invariable)

  1. scout (a member of the international scout movement)
    Synonym: esploratore
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Spanish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English scout.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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scout m or f by sense (plural scouts)

  1. scout

Usage notes

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According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Swedish

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Noun

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scout c

  1. scout; a member of the international scout movement.

Declension

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Declension of scout
nominative genitive
singular indefinite scout scouts
definite scouten scoutens
plural indefinite scouter scouters
definite scouterna scouternas
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