Outpost

How to spell outpost

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce outpost

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does outpost mean?

1. nounA small military or commercial base set up at a distance from the main centre, or any remote settlement.

Outpost in a sentence

• The company ran a trading outpost deep in the mountains.

• The soldiers were sent to guard a lonely outpost near the border.

Where does outpost come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a compound formed from the everyday English word 'out', meaning away from a central place, and 'post' in its sense of an assigned military station. The 'post' element traces back to the Latin positum, the past participle of ponere 'to place or set down', which reached English through the Italian posto and the French poste, both meaning a fixed position where someone is stationed. 'Outpost' itself was coined in English in the late 1700s to describe a small detachment of soldiers placed at a distance from the main army to watch for the enemy. From that strictly military meaning it broadened in the 1800s to cover any remote settlement or trading station far from the centre of activity. Because both halves are familiar English words spelled exactly as you would expect, the compound holds no real surprises beyond remembering it is written as a single closed word.

How the word is built

• out- (away from the main body)
• post (a fixed station or position, from Latin positum 'placed')