sortie

Etymology

It is borrowed from French sortie (“a going out”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the noun use of the feminine past participle of sortir (“to go out”),^[3][7][8][6] which goes back to Old French sortir (“to go out, escape”).^[4][7] Etymonline dates the French noun to the 16th century.^[3] The origin of the French verb is doubtful.^[2][9] Barnhart and Etymonline derive it from Vulgar Latin *surctīre, from a past participle *surctum that replaced Latin surrēctus, from surgō (“to rise up”),^[4][3] and Skeat similarly started from a contracted participle of that verb;^[10] Barnhart compares Spanish surtir (“to gush forth”).^[4] Weekley objected that a Vulgar Latin verb formed in this way from a past participle would be abnormal.^[9] Webster's New World and Partridge instead derive it from sortior (“to draw lots”), from sors;^[11][12] the Anglo-Norman verb sortir, from the second quarter of the 12th century, indeed meant to allot or to cast lots.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A half-concealed decorative knot on a garment: before 1685, in Evelyn's Mundus Muliebris, a sense that died out by 1691.^[2][14][5] The military sense is first recorded in 1778, in a letter of Walpole's.^{[2][4][3][15]}

Semantic evolution

The French word reached English first as a short-lived fashion term of the late 17th century, and then as the military term of 1778, a dash by a besieged garrison upon its besiegers.^[2][5][3] An even earlier loan of the French verb, sort "to sally out", is recorded only from before 1600 to 1608.^[2] From the siege, the word extended to the body of troops making the dash, and to any outing or excursion.^[14][16] A new sense came with the First World War, when it was applied to an operational flight by a military aircraft (1918);^[2][3] from there it reached a series of aerial photographs taken on one flight (1953)^[2][14] and spacecraft in sortie mission (1972).^[2] The word was also used of a sally port (1848) and of a river's outlet (1809).^[2][14] The English verb is a later conversion of the noun, from 1899.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1685 – a half-concealed decorative knot on a garment (obsolete by 1691).^[2][14]
• 1778 – a dash or sally by a besieged garrison.^[2][4][3]
• 1809 – the outlet of a river.^[2]
• 1848 – a sally port.^[2]
• 1899 – verb, to make a sortie; to sally.^[2]
• 1918 – an operational flight by a military aircraft.^[2][3]
• 1953 – in photography, a series of aerial pictures from one flight.^[2]
• 1972 – attributively, of spacecraft returning to earth after a period.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sudden rush of troops from a besieged or defensive position to attack the enemy; a sally.^[16][15][8]
2. The body of troops making such an attack.^[16][8][14]
3. One operational flight or mission by a single military aircraft: The squadron flew twelve sorties that night.^[16][15][2]
4. A short trip or excursion: their first sortie into the old town.^[16][14]
5. The departure of a ship or group of ships from a harbor or anchorage.^[15]
6. (photography) A series of aerial photographs taken during one flight.^[2][14]
7. (obsolete, before 1685–1691) A half-concealed decorative knot on a garment.^[2][14][5]

Verb

1. To make a sortie; to sally forth.^[2][15][16]
2. Of a ship, to depart from a harbor or anchorage.^[15]

Related words

• surge

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins