Vedette (sentry)
A vedette is a mounted sentry or picket, who has the function of bringing information, giving signals or warnings of danger, etc., to a main body of troops.[1][a] In modern terms, the soldiers who man listening-posts are the equivalent of vedettes.
Navies use the term vedette to refer to a small scouting or patrol boat.
The term has also been used for specific naval vessels (see USS Vedette), and a class of flying boat (see Canadian Vickers Vedette).
Structures
All around Salisbury Plain in southern England, the roads connecting the plain with the surrounding countryside feature brick-built guard-posts, staffed by security officers whenever there is military activity beyond such points. They are known as vedettes, and each one is named for a local geographic feature.[2]
The Gardjola is a prominent guard tower on Maltese forts in Malta and an example of a vedette.[3][4][5] It may be referred to in French as an échauguette.[6]
Notes
- ^ The word originated as a French military term vedette (formed from Latin videre, to see) (Chisholm 1911), also spelled vidette.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 965.
- ^ "Lavington Hill Vedette".
- ^ "About The Island of Malta". seemalta.net.
- ^ "Senglea. Vedette". maltavista.net.
- ^ Morana, Martin (September 2011). Bejn kliem u storja: glossarju enċiklopediku dwar tradizzjonijiet - toponimi - termini storiċi Maltin (in Maltese). Malta: Best Print. p. 85. ISBN 978-99957-0-137-6. OCLC 908059040.
- ^ "Malte échauguette Isla Senglea 1994". panoramio.com.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vedette". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 965.
External links
The dictionary definition of vedette at Wiktionary
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