eavesdropping

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English eavesdrop

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti

Proto-Germanic *-ōną

Proto-Germanic *-gō

Proto-Germanic *-ōngō?

Proto-Germanic *-ungō

Old English -ung

Middle English -ynge

English -ing

English eavesdropping

From eavesdrop + -ing.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈivsˌdɹɒ.piŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

eavesdropping (countable and uncountable, plural eavesdroppings)

1. verbal noun of eavesdrop:
   1. Listening secretly to the private conversations of others.
      • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!, →OL:

        The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.

   2. (telecommunications) The interception of electronic communication.
   3. (zoology) The act of one organism listening for another's calls, so as to exploit them.

Synonyms

• tabhanging

Derived terms

• anti-eavesdropping
• eavesdroppingly

Translations

listening secretly to the private conversations of others

• Arabic: تَنَصُّت m (tanaṣṣut), اِسْتِرَاق سَمْع m (istirāq samʕ)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 竊聽 / 窃听 (zh) (qiètīng)

• Finnish: salakuuntelu (fi)
• German: Lauschen n, Abhören (de) n
• Greek: κρυφάκουσμα (el) n (kryfákousma), λαθρακρόαση f (lathrakróasi), ωτακουστία f (otakoustía)
• Hungarian: hallgatózás (hu)
• Italian: origliamento m, l'origliare m, ascolto di nascosto m
• Japanese: 盗聴 (ja) (とうちょう, tōchō)
• Korean: 엿듣다 (yeotdeutda) (verb)
• Persian: استراق سمع (fa) (esterâq-e sam')
• Polish: podsłuchiwanie (pl) n, podsłuchanie (pl) n
• Romanian: trage cu urechea
• Russian: подслу́шивание (ru) n (podslúšivanije)
• Scottish Gaelic: farchluais
• Serbo-Croatian: prisluškivanje (sh) n, прислушкивање n
• Swedish: tjuvlyssning c
• Ukrainian: підслухо́вування n (pidsluxóvuvannja), підслу́хування n (pidslúxuvannja), прослухо́вування n (prosluxóvuvannja)
• Unami: kimsìtamëweokàn

interception of electronic communication

• Arabic: تَنَصُّت m (tanaṣṣut)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 竊聽 / 窃听 (zh) (qiètīng)

• Finnish: salakuuntelu (fi)
• French: écoute clandestine f
• German: Abhören (de) n
• Italian: intercettazione telefonica f, intercettazione comuncazioni f
• Japanese: 盗聴 (ja) (とうちょう, tōchō)
• Korean: 도청(盜聽) (ko) (docheong)
• Persian: استراق سمع (fa) (esterâq-e sam')
• Polish: podsłuchiwanie (pl) n, podsłuch (pl) m
• Romanian: interceptare (ro)
• Russian: подслу́шивание (ru) n (podslúšivanije), перехва́т (ru) m (perexvát), прослу́шка (ru) f (proslúška) (colloquial)
• Serbo-Croatian: prisluškivanje (sh) n, прислушкивање n
• Swedish: avlyssning (sv) c

Verb

eavesdropping

1. present participle and gerund of eavesdrop

Further reading

• eavesdropping on Wikipedia.Wikipedia