ricochet

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French ricochet, of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪkəʃeɪ/, /ˈɹɪkəʃɛt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Hyphenation: ric‧o‧chet

Noun

ricochet (plural ricochets)

1. (military) A method of firing a projectile so that it skips along a surface.
2. An instance of ricocheting; a glancing rebound.
   • 1970, “Child in Time”, in Deep Purple in Rock, performed by Deep Purple:

     And you've not been hit / By flying lead / You'd better close your eyes / Bow your head / Wait for the ricochet

Translations

an instance of ricocheting

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: рикошет m (rikošet)
• Catalan: rebot (ca) n
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 跳彈／跳弹 (zh), 跳弹 (zh) (tiàodàn)

• Dutch: ricochet n
• Estonian: rikošett
• Finnish: kimmoke (fi)
• French: ricochet (fr)
• German: Querschuss m, Querschläger (de) m
• Greek: αποστρακισμός (el) m (apostrakismós)
• Hungarian: visszapattanás (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: endurkast n, skopp n
• Italian: rimbalzo (it) m
• Japanese: 跳弾 (ちょうだん,chōdan)
• Kazakh: жанап тию (janap tiü)
• Korean: 도탄(跳彈) (dotan)
• Latvian: rikošets m
• Maori: ripi
• Polish: rykoszet (pl)
• Russian: рикоше́т (ru) m (rikošét)
• Spanish: rebote (es)
• Swedish: rikoschett (sv) c
• Vietnamese: đạn nảy (彈𫡐)

Verb

ricochet (third-person singular simple present ricochets, present participle ricocheting or ricochetting, simple past and past participle ricocheted or ricochetted)

1. To rebound off something wildly in a seemingly random direction.
   • #*
2. (military) To operate upon by ricochet firing.

Translations

To rebound

• Bulgarian: рикоширам (bg) (rikoširam)
• Catalan: retopar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: afketsen (nl)
• Finnish: kimmota (fi)
• French: ricocher (fr)
• German: abprallen (de), querschlagen, wegprallen
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: endurkastast, kastast frá, skoppa, fleyta kerlingar
• Ido: rikochar (io)
• Italian: rimbalzare (it)
• Japanese: 跳ね返す (はねかえす, hanekaesu)
• Maori: ripi, pahu
• Russian: бить рикоше́том (bitʹ rikošétom), рикошети́ровать (ru) (rikošetírovatʹ)
• Spanish: rebotar (es)
• Swedish: rikoschettera (sv)

Further reading

• ricochet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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French

Etymology

Origin uncertain. The word first appears in the phrases chanson du/de riochet, fable du ricochet. This is apparently related to other story-titles such as the fable du rouge kokelet; other dialectal terms such as ripoton (“duckling”) and Norman recoquet (“chick”) has led to theories that the word originally indicated a "young cock". The sense-development is unclear.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁi.kɔ.ʃɛ/

Noun

ricochet m (plural ricochets)

1. rebound; ricochet
2. (games) ducks and drakes

Further reading

• “ricochet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.