Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Eavesdrop-Megan W
The definition that most Americans typically mean when they use the word eavesdrop today is, as the Oxford English Dictionary says, “To listen secretly to private (conversation).” This is not the meaning that was always used; it is a definition that has come to be over time. Eavesdrop originally meant, “the place where the water drops from the eaves” The roof extended about two feet from the walls of the house. Back in England is when its usage first started. As time continued, the word eavesdropper came to be used as “somebody who stood within this strip of ground, under the projecting eaves and close to the walls of a building, in order to listen surreptitiously to the conversations within” (Quinion). In 1515, this word was used when it was written, “eavesdroppers under men’s walls or windows.” Using this analogy, this word, eavesdropper, comes to life; we can see the word in our mind, a person crawling along a wall, sneaking under the windows, so that they can hear what the people inside of the house are talking about. This came to mean the people who listen in on other people’s conversations, not necessarily actually listening in on the conversations in the house, but other places as well.