different between observe vs sight

English

Etymology

From Middle French observer, from Old French [Term?], from Latin observare (“to watch, note, mark, heed, guard, keep, pay attention to, regard, comply with, etc.”), from ob (“before”) + servare (“to keep”), from Proto-Indo-European *serw- (“to guard”). Cognate with Gothic ???????????????????? (sarwa, “weapons, armour”), Old English searu (“device, design, contrivance, art, cunning, craft, artifice, wile, deceit, stratagem, ambush, treachery, plot, trick, snare, ambuscade, cleverness, machine, engine, fabric, armor, equipment, arms”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?z??v/, (rare) /?b?z??v/
• (General American, Canada) enPR: ?b-zûrv?, IPA^(key): /?b?z?v/
• Rhymes: -??(?)v
• Hyphenation: ob?serve

Verb

observe (third-person singular simple present observes, present participle observing, simple past and past participle observed)

1. (transitive) To notice or view, especially carefully or with attention to detail.
   • 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb

     “One horse?” interjected Holmes. ¶ “Yes, only one.” ¶ “Did you observe the colour?”
2. (transitive) To follow or obey the custom, practice, or rules (especially of a religion).
3. (transitive) To take note of and celebrate (a holiday or similar occurrence); to follow (a type of time or calendar reckoning).

   • Ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread.

   • 2020 (March 7), Jackie Dunham, "Daylight time: How to get enough sleep when the clocks spring forward, CTV News:

     On Sunday, most of Canada will observe daylight time and spring forward an hour in order to reflect the increasing sunlight.

4. (intransitive) To comment on something; to make an observation.

   • Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

Synonyms

• (follow a custom): celebrate

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• observe in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• observe in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• obverse, verbose

French

Verb

observe

1. first-person singular present indicative of observer
2. third-person singular present indicative of observer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of observer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of observer
5. second-person singular imperative of observer

Portuguese

Verb

observe

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of observar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of observar
3. first-person singular imperative of observar
4. third-person singular imperative of observar

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ob?serve]

Verb

observe

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of observa
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of observa

Spanish

Verb

observe

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of observar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of observar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of observar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of observar.

English

Etymology

From Middle English si?ht, si?t, siht, from Old English siht, sihþ (“something seen; vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *sihti, equivalent to see +? -th. Cognate with Scots sicht, Saterland Frisian Sicht, West Frisian sicht, Dutch zicht, German Low German Sicht, German Sicht, Danish sigte, Swedish sikte.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?t
• enPR: s?t, IPA^(key): /sa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: cite, site

Noun

sight (countable and uncountable, plural sights)

1. (in the singular) The ability to see.
2. The act of seeing; perception of objects by the eye; view.

   • And when hee had spoken these things, while they beheld, hee was taken vp, and a cloud receiued him out of their sight.

3. Something seen.
   • 2005, Lesley Brown (translator), Plato (author), Sophist, 236d:

     He's a really remarkable man and it's very hard to get him in one's sights; […]

4. Something worth seeing; a spectacle, either good or bad.

   • And Moses saide, I will nowe turne aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, Prothalamion

     They never saw a sight so fair.

5. A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.
6. A small aperture through which objects are to be seen, and by which their direction is settled or ascertained.
7. (now colloquial) a great deal, a lot; frequently used to intensify a comparative.

   • A nombre of twenty sterres bright,
     Which is to sene a wonder sight

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 2

     "If your mother put you in the pit at twelve, it's no reason why I should do the same with my lad."

     "Twelve! It wor a sight afore that!"

8. In a drawing, picture, etc., that part of the surface, as of paper or canvas, which is within the frame or the border or margin. In a frame, the open space, the opening.
9. (obsolete) The instrument of seeing; the eye.
10. Mental view; opinion; judgment.
    • That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Synonyms

• (ability to see): sense of sight, vision
• (something seen): view
• (aiming device): scope, peep sight

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

sight (third-person singular simple present sights, present participle sighting, simple past and past participle sighted)

1. (transitive) To register visually.
2. (transitive) To get sight of (something).

3. (transitive) To apply sights to; to adjust the sights of; also, to give the proper elevation and direction to by means of a sight.

4. (transitive) To take aim at.

Synonyms

• (visually register): see
• (get sight of): espy, glimpse, spot
• (take aim): aim at, take aim at

Derived terms

• resight

Translations

See also

• see
• vision

Anagrams

• ghits, thigs, tighs