surveillance

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French surveillance (“a watching over, overseeing, supervision”), from surveiller (“to watch, oversee”), from sur- (“over”) + veiller (“to watch”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French veillier (“to stay awake”), from Latin vigilāre, present active infinitive of vigilō (“I am watchful”). More at vigilant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səɹˈveɪ.ləns/

Noun

surveillance (countable and uncountable, plural surveillances)

1. Close observation of an individual or group; person or persons under suspicion.
2. Continuous monitoring of disease occurrence for example.
3. (military, espionage) Systematic observation of places and people by visual, aural, electronic, photographic or other means.
   • 2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 188, number 2, page 23:

     The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.

4. (law) In criminal law, an investigation process by which police gather evidence about crimes, or suspected crime, through continued observation of persons or places.

Derived terms

• antisurveillance
• biosurveillance
• countersurveillance
• cybersurveillance
• geosurveillance
• immunosurveillance
• mass surveillance
• oversurveillance
• re-surveillance
• serosurveillance
• surveillance camera
• uberveillance

 

Related terms

• surveil

Translations

observation of individuals or groups of individuals

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: vigilància (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 監測／监测 (zh) (jiāncè), 监测 (zh) (jiāncè), 監視／监视 (zh) (jiānshì), 监视 (zh) (jiānshì)

• Danish: overvågning
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• French: surveillance (fr) f, fichage (fr) m
• Georgian: ზედამხედველობა (zedamxedveloba), მეთვალყურეობა (metvalq̇ureoba), დაკვირვება (daḳvirveba)
• German: Überwachung (de) f
• Hebrew: מעקב סמוי m (maakav samui)
• Italian: sorveglianza (it)
• Japanese: 監視 (ja) (かんし, kanshi), サーベイランス (sābeiransu)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 감시 (ko) (gamsi)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oppsikt m, overvåking m or f, overvåkning (no) m or f

• Occitan: susvelhança f
• Persian: نظارت (fa) (nezârat), مراقبت (fa) (morâqebat), پایش (fa) (pâyeš)
• Polish: inwigilacja (pl) f
• Portuguese: vigilância (pt) f
• Russian: надзо́р (ru) (nadzór), наблюде́ние (ru) (nabljudénije)
• Spanish: vigilancia (es) f
• Swahili: ulinzi (sw)
• Swedish: bevakning (sv) n, bevarande (sv) n, övervakning (sv) n
• Tagalog: matyag, pagmamatyag
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: gözetim (tr), gözaltı (tr) (law), nezaret (tr) (law)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: gwyliadwriaeth f

See also

• wiretapping
• shadowing
• tailing
• lookout (act)
• sousveillance

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French surveillance.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

surveillance f (plural surveillances)

1. stakeout

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French

Etymology

From surveiller +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /syʁ.vɛ.jɑ̃s/ ~ /syʁ.ve.jɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

surveillance f (plural surveillances)

1. surveillance
2. supervision

Further reading

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