spy
pronunciation
How to pronounce spy in British English:
UK [spaɪ]
How to pronounce spy in American English:
US [spaɪ]
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- Noun:
- (military) a secret agent hired by a state to obtain information about its enemies or by a business to obtain industrial secrets from competitors
- a secret watcher; someone who secretly watches other people
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- Verb:
- catch sight of
- watch, observe, or inquire secretly
- secretly collect sensitive or classified information; engage in espionage
Word Origin
- spy
- spy: [13] A spy is etymologically someone who ‘looks’. The word was adapted from Old French espie ‘watcher, spy’, a derivative of espier ‘watch, spy’ (from which English gets the verb spy, and also espy [14] and espionage [18]). This in turn was formed from the borrowed Germanic base *spekh- (source of German spähen ‘reconnoitre, watch’ and Swedish speja ‘spy, scout’), which went back ultimately to Indo- European *spek- ‘look’ (source of English inspect, spectator, etc).=> espionage, expect, inspect, special, spectator
- spy (v.)
- mid-13c., "to watch stealthily," from Old French espiier "observe, watch closely, spy on, find out," probably from Frankish *spehon or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *spehon- (cognates: Old High German *spehon "to look out for, scout, spy," German spähen "to spy," Middle Dutch spien), the Germanic survivals of the productive PIE root *spek- "to look, observe" (see scope (n.1)). Old English had spyrian "make a track, go, pursue; ask about, investigate," also a noun spyrigend "investigator, inquirer." Italian spiare, Spanish espiar also are Germanic loan-words. Meaning "to catch sight of" is from c. 1300. Children's game I spy so called by 1946.
- spy (n.)
- mid-13c., "one who spies on another," from Old French espie "spy, look-out, scout" (Modern French épie), probably from a Germanic source related to spy (v.).
Example
- 1. A u-2 spy plane is shot down that day .
- 2. Spy thrillers make up a tiny percentage of books in china why ?
- 3. The chinese say the impeccable was on a spy mission .
- 4. Far-sighted optimists spy a broader technological revolution , with britain in the vanguard .
- 5. Technology firms spy an opportunity to bypass old-fashioned distributors and bring online video directly to the living room .