# scout
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /skaʊt/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (Canada) IPA: [skʌʊt]
* Rhymes: -aʊt
* Homophone: Scout

### Etymology 1

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.

#### Noun

scout (plural scouts)
* 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
* An act of scouting or reconnoitering.
** 1782, William Cowper, “The Cricket”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC:while the rat is on the scout
* 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.
* A person who assesses 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: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.
* A person employed to monitor rivals' activities in the petroleum industry.
* (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.
* (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.
* (UK, cricket) A fielder in a game for practice.
* (historical, UK, up until 1920s) A fighter aircraft.
* (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.
* (informal) A 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

* boy scout
* go on the scout
* scout balloon
* scout car
* scoutess
* Scout Green
* scouthouse
* scoutmaster
* Scout Official for a Day
* scout team
* talent scout

##### Translations
#### Verb

scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)
* (transitive, intransitive) To explore a wide terrain, as if on a search.
    Synonyms: survey, reconnoiter
** c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:An hundred horeſmen of my companie Scowting abroad vpon theſe champion plaines, Haue view’d the army of the Scythians, Which make report it far exceeds the Kings.
* (transitive) To observe, watch, or look for, as a scout; to follow for the purpose of observation, as a scout.
** c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii:Take more men, and scout him round.

##### Derived terms

* scout about
* scout around
* scout out
* scout round
* scout up

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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

scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)
* (transitive) To reject with contempt.
    to scout an idea or an apology
** 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:Flout 'em and scout 'em; and scout 'em and flout 'em: / Thought is free.
** 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:I don't think I had any definite idea where Dora came from, or in what degree she was related to a higher order of beings; but I am quite sure I should have scouted the notion of her being simply human, like any other young lady, with indignation and contempt.
* (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
### Etymology 3

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

scout (plural scouts)
* (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

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”); 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. It is also unclear whether the noun meaning "guillemot" is related; it might derive from their habit of pouring forth excrement.

#### Verb

scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)
* (Scotland) To pour forth a liquid forcibly, especially excrement; to cause a liquid to gush.

#### Noun

scout (plural scouts)
* The guillemot.

##### References

* ↑ “scout”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* ↑ “scout”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
* ↑ 1879, Specimens of English Dialects: God drawned the praud children of Adam; the rainbow is a witness; Raven-scout$^2$ and Beetham-fell to this day shew us the marks of the flead. […] $^2$ I dont 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

* Scout (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Scout in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

### Further reading

* “scout”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “scout”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “scout”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from English scout.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /skɑu̯t/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: scout
* Rhymes: -ɑu̯t

### Noun

scout m (plural scouts)
* a scout, a boy scout or girl scout
    Synonym: padvinder
* (sports) a talent scout

#### Related terms

* scouting

## French
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

scout m (plural scouts)
* scout, boy scout

#### Derived terms

* parole de scout

### Further reading

* “scout”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Italian
### Etymology

Clipping of boyscout.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈskawt/
* Rhymes: -awt

### Noun

scout m or f by sense (invariable)
* scout (a member of the international scout movement)
    Synonym: esploratore

#### Related terms

* coccinella
* guida
* lupetto
* rover
* scautismo
* scolta

## Spanish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English scout.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /esˈkaut/ [esˈkau̯t̪]
* Rhymes: -aut

### Noun

scout m or f by sense (plural scouts)
* scout

#### Usage notes

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
### Noun

scout c
* scout; a member of the international scout movement.