Orienteers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Participants in a sport that involves navigating through varied terrain using maps and compasses to locate specific checkpoints
2. Individuals engaged in a competitive outdoor activity that requires skill in map reading and navigating unfamiliar landscapes
3. People who take part in a navigation-based sport, using maps and compasses to find predetermined points across different landscapes

Etymology: "Orienteers" is the plural of "orienteer", a noun for a person who takes part in orienteering, the sport of racing across unfamiliar countryside while navigating with a map and compass. The word was borrowed from Swedish "orientera", which is the source of the English term for the activity as well. The Swedish verb is itself a borrowing of a sort, built on the same idea that gives English its "orient": to get one's bearings, literally to find the east, from the direction in which the sun rises. Swedish speakers used "orientera" in this navigational sense, so the sport's name carries that original sense of finding your way by reference to the sky.