SCOUT (from O. Fr. escouter, mod. ecouter,

See also:

• LAT

Lat. auscultare, to listen)  , a soldier sent out to watch the enemy and bring information of his numbers, movements, whereabouts, &c . The name has also been applied to a particular class of light speedy cruisers in the British navy . After the South African War of 1899-1902, the importance of military scouting received much attention in England in consequence of the prominence given to it by Major-General Baden-Powell, of Mafeking fame . Under the latter's auspices an unofficial attempt to foster the qualities required was made by the institution of the Boy Scouts, a voluntary organization which, starting in 1908, had by 1910 enrolled many hundreds of thousands of boys throughout the United Kingdom, with branches overseas . Various birds of the auk family, such as the guillemot and the puffin, are known as " scouts." The name is also given colloquially to college servants at Oxford and Harvard Universities . It then answers to the " gyp " of Cambridge, Trinity College, Dublin, and Durham, which has been variously explained as short for " gipsy," as taken from Tiny, vulture, from a supposed reference to a grasping character, or as representing an old word " gippo " (Fr. jupeau, tunic), used of a scullion or kitchen servant . In the above senses, " scout" must be distinguished from the word meaning to flout, or reject with ridicule and scorn, which is derived from the Icel. skitta, taunt, jeer . In the military sense, see Sir R . S . Baden-Powell, Scouting, and Scouting for Boys . The Boy Scouts' movement in England has official papers in the weekly Scout and monthly Headquarters Gazette .