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Are reconnoiter and reconnaissance two forms of the same word or are they two words with a common etymology? According to the Wiktionary pages, they are both derived from French, but it is unclear as to the relationship between the words.

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There is no relationship between them in English. Wiktionary is actually exceptionally clear about that. I am not sure what the question here is. – RegDwighт♦ Mar 22 '12 at 15:36
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The etymologies of reconnoiter and reconnaissance are available at Etymonline – Matt Эллен Mar 22 '12 at 15:36
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It seems a perfectly fair question to me. Etymonline is neither comprehensive nor infallible, and misses the noun form of reconnoiter/reconnoitre, which shows a clear relationship. – TimLymington Mar 22 '12 at 15:43
Of course there is a clear relationship — in French. Not in English, though. Reconnaissance has clearly not been created by native speakers of English from reconnoiter. For starters, the mutation "oit" → "ais", while rather typical for French, is not productive in English at all. But you don't even need to think that far, because as Wiktionary clearly states, each word got borrowed from French, on separate occasions, as is. No need to be an expert in either language to realize that the buck stops with French. (And for that we have French Language and Usage.) – RegDwighт♦ Mar 22 '12 at 22:20

closed as not a real question by RegDwighт♦ Mar 22 '12 at 15:36

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