different between peer vs gawk

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English piren (“to peer”), from or related to Saterland Frisian pierje (“to look”), Dutch Low Saxon piren (“to look”), West Flemish pieren (“to look with narrowed eyes, squint at”), Dutch pieren (“to look closely at, examine”). Or, possibly from a shortening of appear.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p??/
• (General American) enPR: pîr, IPA^(key): /pi?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: pier

Verb

peer (third-person singular simple present peers, present participle peering, simple past and past participle peered)

1. (intransitive) To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
   • c. 1696, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 1,^[1]

     […] I should be still

     Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind,

     Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;

   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Lyrical Ballads, London: J. & A. Arch, Part III, p. 17,^[2]

     And strait the Sun was fleck’d with bars

     (Heaven’s mother send us grace)

     As if thro’ a dungeon grate he peer’d

     With broad and burning face.

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter I, p. 10,^[3]

     He walked slowly past the gate and peered through a narrow gap in the cedar hedge. The girl was moving along a sanded walk, toward a gray, unpainted house, with a steep roof, broken by dormer windows.

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1914, Chapter 6, p. 65,^[4]

     He would peek into the curtained windows, or, climbing upon the roof, peer down the black depths of the chimney in vain endeavor to solve the unknown wonders that lay within those strong walls.

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To come in sight; to appear.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene 3,^[5]

     And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,

     So honour peereth in the meanest habit.

   • 1611, Ben Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: Walter Burre, Act III,^[6]

     See, how his gorget peeres aboue his gowne;

Derived terms

• overpeer

Translations

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. A look; a glance.
   • 1970, William Crookes, T. A. Malone, George Shadbolt, The British journal of photography (volume 117, page 58)

     Blessed are those organisers who provide one-and-all with a name tag, for then the participants will chat together. A quick peer at your neighbour's lapel is much the simplest way to become introduced […]

Etymology 2

From Middle English pere, per, from Anglo-Norman peir, Old French per, from Latin p?r. Doublet of pair and par

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p??/
• (General American) enPR: pîr, IPA^(key): /pi?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: pier

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level or of a value equal (to that of something else).

   • In song he never had his peer.

   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     Shall they draw off to their privileged quarters, and consort only with their peers?

2. Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else).
3. A noble with a hereditary title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.

   a peer of the realm
4. A comrade; a companion; an associate.

Translations

Verb

peer (third-person singular simple present peers, present participle peering, simple past and past participle peered)

1. To make equal in rank.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Heylin to this entry?)

2. (Internet) To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another network provider to carry one's traffic.

Derived terms

• peer-to-peer

Related terms

• peer assessment
• peer review, peer reviewed
• peer pressure
• peerless
• the Peers

Etymology 3

pee +? -er

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pi?.?/
• (General American) enPR: pîr, IPA^(key): /pi.?/

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. (informal) Someone who pees, someone who urinates.

Anagrams

• pere, père

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch peer, from Middle Dutch p?re, from Vulgar Latin *pira, from Latin pirum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???r/

Noun

peer (plural pere)

1. pear

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch p?re, from Vulgar Latin *pira, from Latin pirum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pe?r/, [p??r]
• Hyphenation: peer
• Rhymes: -e?r

Noun

peer f (plural peren, diminutive peertje n)

1. A pear, a fruit of the pear tree.
2. A light bulb.

Derived terms

• handpeer
• muilpeer
• perensap
• perenwijn
• stoofpeer

Descendants

• Afrikaans: peer

Noun

peer m (plural peren, diminutive peertje n)

1. A pear tree, Pyrus communis.
   • 1911, H. Heukels, Kennis Der Natuur A. Leerboek der dierkunde, plantkunde en natuurkunde voor a.s. onderwijzers, vol. II "dierkunde", page 77.

Anagrams

• reep

Middle English

Noun

peer

1. Alternative form of pere (“peer”)

Adjective

peer

1. Alternative form of pere (“equal”)

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pir/

Etymology 1

From Middle English pere (“pear”), from Old English pere, peru, from Vulgar Latin *pira, from Latin pirum.

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. pear (fruit)

Derived terms

• peerie

Etymology 2

From Middle English piren (“to peer”).

Verb

peer (third-person singular present peers, present participle peerin, past peert, past participle peert)

1. To peer.

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin p?dere, present active infinitive of p?d?, from Proto-Italic *pezd? (“to fart”) from Proto-Indo-European *pesd- (“to fart”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pe?e?/, [pe?e?]

Verb

peer (first-person singular present peo, first-person singular preterite peí, past participle peído)

1. to break wind, to fart
2. (reflexive) to break wind; fart

Conjugation

Related terms

• peerse
• pedo
• pedorrear

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k/
• Rhymes: -??k
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /??k/

Etymology 1

From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ??ac. More at yeke.

Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.

Noun

gawk (plural gawks)

1. A cuckoo.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

2. A fool; a simpleton; a stupid or clumsy person.
   • 1855 Thomas Carlyle, The Prinzenraub, Westminster Review

     A Duke of Weissenfels, for instance; foolish old gawk, whom Wilhehnina Princess Royal recollects for his distracted notions, — which were well shaken out of him by Wilhelmina's Brother afterwards.

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from English dialectal gaw (“to stare; gawk”) +? -k, as in talk, stalk, etc., ultimately from Old Norse gá (“to heed”).

Verb

gawk (third-person singular simple present gawks, present participle gawking, simple past and past participle gawked)

1. To stare or gape stupidly.
2. To stare conspicuously.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stare

Derived terms

• gawker

Translations

References