Make Your Point > Archived Issues > SORTIE
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pronounce
SORTIE:
Say it "SORE tee."
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connect this word to others:
In French, sortie means "exit," or "a going out."
It also has a very specific meaning, one we've adopted into English. A sortie is a strike, an assault, a s___y, a rushing out, an attack--especially an attack on your own attackers. If you're exiting from your fortress and rushing toward your besiegers, sword in hand, you're making a sortie.
Sortie is cousins with the words source; surge; resurge, resurgent, and resurrect; and insurgent and insurrection. They all belong to the surgere family: the "rise up" family.
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definition:
We got our word "sortie" from French, where it means "an exit" as well as "a siege or attack made on the people who are sieging or attacking you" (or, much more literally, "a going out").
You can trace the French sortie back to a Latin word, surgere, meaning "to rise up." And you can break surgere down further into sub (meaning "up from below") and regere ("to rule, to guide, to direct, or to keep straight").
In English, a sortie can be an attack on your attackers.
Or, more loosely, it can be any kind of sudden, rushing attack, or anything that reminds you of that kind of attack because it involves someone suddenly marching into a new, foreign, or hostile place, activity, or group of people.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Noun, the countable kind: "The sortie began;" "They arrived in sorties;" "Her latest sorties are interesting."
Very rarely, a verb: "This is a good time to sortie."
Other common forms:
Just the plural, "sorties."
how to use it:
Pick the formal, militaristic, semi-common word "sortie" when you want to suggest that someone's sudden attempt or effort reminds you of a bold, fast, new, surprising attack or counterattack.
You might talk about someone's sortie, often their sortie to or into something. Or, talk about people planning, considering, making, beginning, or undertaking a sortie.
examples:
"And then a trumpet rang from the Citadel, and Denethor at last released the sortie. Drawn up within the shadow of the Gate and under the looming walls outside they had waited for his signal: all the mounted men that were left in the City. Now they sprang forward, formed, quickened to a gallop, and charged with a great shout."
— J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King, 1955
"Our bathing suits were reserved for daring midnight sorties to the whirlpool."
— Stephen Heyman, New York Times Magazine, 14 November 2012
has this page helped you understand "sortie"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "sortie" without saying "foray" or "taking a stab at it."
try it out:
In his book Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer wrote:
"Hall's strategy was to lay siege to the mountain... The first of these sorties would occur on April 13—a one-day round-trip to Camp One, perched on the uppermost brow of the Khumbu Icefall, a vertical half mile above."
You can imagine how this kind of sortie is both risky and thrilling.
Talk about a risky, thrilling sortie of your own, either one that you've made in the past or one that you might make in the future. Your sortie might not involve physical risk, but emotional, financial, or artistic risk.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is Crossword Clues: Movie Titles!
Use the movie title as a clue to come up with a word we've studied. For example, if the clue is "The Great Escape. 6 letters. _ E C _ M _," then the answer is "DECAMP," a word meaning "to get the heck out of there." To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Enjoy!
Try this one today:
Groundhog Day.
9 letters. Hyphenated.
_ E _ - L _ _ _ _ _.
review this word:
A. a RETREAT.
B. a STANDOFF.
C. a COMPETITION.
2.
On Fandom.com, you're most likely to encounter the word "sortie" in an article about _____.
A. inside jokes in a sitcom
B. pop-culture battle strategies
C. minor characters who deserve fuller backstories
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
We got our word "sortie" from French, where it means "an exit" as well as "a siege or attack made on the people who are sieging or attacking you" (or, much more literally, "a going out").
Part of speech:
Pick the formal, militaristic, semi-common word "sortie" when you want to suggest that someone's sudden attempt or effort reminds you of a bold, fast, new, surprising attack or counterattack.
"And then a trumpet rang from the Citadel, and Denethor at last released the sortie. Drawn up within the shadow of the Gate and under the looming walls outside they had waited for his signal: all the mounted men that were left in the City. Now they sprang forward, formed, quickened to a gallop, and charged with a great shout."
Explain the meaning of "sortie" without saying "foray" or "taking a stab at it."
In his book Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer wrote:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
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