different between sight vs gawk

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

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