Today's Word "Ogle"
Published in Vocabulary
ogle \O-gehl\ (verb) - To stare at in an obvious fashion with eyes wide open, especially out of salacious interest.
"Jason's blatant ogling has already earned him several slaps in the face and a lonely life."
Our word today came to us from Low German "oegeln," the frequentative form of oegen "to eye" from oge "eye." This word shares its origin with Swedish "ogon", German "Augen," and English "eye," all with the same meaning. The Swedish word ogla "eyelet, loop" is another relative. In Serbian, this root emerged as oko "eye" and in Russian as okno "window," based on the same semantic idea as English "window," which comes from Old Norse vindauga, literally, "wind-eye." The root ok- was also retained in Russian ochki "eye-glasses" and okolo "around" (eyes are round). Ogling members of the opposite sex is but a step away from voyeurism. The difference between the two is that ogling by definition is controllable while voyeurism is perceived as a fetish. Someone who ogles is an ogler who engages in ogling.
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