reconnoiter

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William Hupy
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reconnoiter

Postby William Hupy » Mon Oct 14, 2013 4:51 pm

I am studying Spanish in, I hate to admit it, my early 60s and it is not easy. My synapses are clogged and closed, so I must hammer in the verbs and verb conjugations. I found it helps when I can relate a word to one it closely resembles in English. Today's verb recoger means to collect. This looked close to reconnoiter. I checked the etymology. The infinitive in Latin is recognoscere. Then the French iteration (I only learned how to laugh in French, so I will not even attempt that derivative) and our own dear English "recognize". There, doc, I did all or your work for you!
William A. Hupy

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Slava
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Re: reconnoiter

Postby Slava » Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:21 pm

Well, you did do some work, but you didn't quite explain how we got from reclaiming your land to spying. :D

As to needing a hammer, that's why I like to say that often I need pneumatic devices to remember things. They need to be drilled into my head.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Philip Hudson
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Re: reconnoiter

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:49 pm

One may claim and reclaim. In order to recognize, one must cognize or at least cogitate. Why can't one connoiter?
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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