: a prying observer who is usually seeking the sordid or the scandalous
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What is a voyeur?
Voyeur is a fairly recent addition to English; our earliest written evidence for the word dates from the beginning of the 20th century. It comes directly from a French noun meaning, literally, “one who sees.”
Initially, voyeur referred to someone who derived sexual pleasure from watching others undress or engage in intimate acts; it was synonymous with Peeping Tom. By the middle of the 20th century, its meaning had broadened to "an unduly prying observer," particularly one interested in squalid or shocking details:
[A] good biographer is always in some sense a voyeur.–Times Literary Supplement, November 5, 1971
Is a press that pries into a presidential aspirant’s personal habits pandering to voyeurs or enlightening rightfully curious voters? –Saturday Review, February 16, 1980
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebTalese follows Foos and covers his life, watching the watcher and viewing the voyeur. Janaya Wecker, Town & Country, 29 Aug. 2022 Soon, the Long Island Sound broadened, and the plane veered away from the shoreline, offering little for a real-estate voyeur to ogle. Ben Mcgrath, The New Yorker, 25 July 2022 Philyaw is a voyeur of a kind, training her gaze on the furtive activities of Black women.The New Yorker, 4 July 2022 Some of the women described the voyeur as a white man, 25 to 35, wearing a black jacket.Longreads, 5 May 2022 The voyeur in me likes bedrooms in historic houses. Brian T. Allen, National Review, 10 Mar. 2022 Others take on a more disturbing note: a couple with a body replacement printer in their basement, who develop a habit of offing each other and reprinting their bodies; an Instagram voyeur sneaking into the funeral of a young mountain climber. Wired Staff, Wired, 26 Nov. 2021 The quietness outside, the ability to be a voyeur, how funny and shameless and alive the city is, and will probably always be, even without you in it. Brienne Walsh, Forbes, 27 Oct. 2021 Footage has been shared widely online, uploaded to streaming sites and shared on voyeur forums. Jessie Yeung, CNN, 12 Aug. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
French, literally, one who sees, from Middle French, from voir to see, from Latin vidēre — more at wit