rencounter

English

Etymology

From Middle French rencontrer (verb), Middle French rencontre (noun), corresponding to re- + Old French encontrer (“encounter”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɛnˈkaʊntə/

Verb

rencounter (third-person singular simple present rencounters, present participle rencountering, simple past and past participle rencountered)

1. (archaic, transitive) To meet, encounter, come into contact with.
2. (obsolete) To attack hand to hand.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Tho, whenas still he saw him towards pace,
     He gan rencounter him in equall race

Noun

rencounter (plural rencounters)

1. (archaic) An encounter between opposing forces; a conflict.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     Mr Nightingale promised to enquire into the state of Mr Fitzpatrick's wound, and likewise to find out some of the persons who were present at the rencounter.

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter XII, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 251–252:

     He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.

2. (archaic) An encounter or chance meeting.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     The Prior at length […] rode off with considerably less pomp, and in a much more apostolical condition, so far as worldly matters were concerned, than he had exhibited before this rencounter.