Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of watching or observing.
  • noun A taking notice of something; a discovery.
  • noun The fact of being seen or noticed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of espying; observation; watch; scrutiny.
  • noun A spy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of espying; notice; discovery.
  • noun obsolete One who espies; a spy; a scout.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Act of noticing or observing.
  • noun The fact of noticing or observing; a discovery.
  • noun obsolete A spy; a scout.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of detecting something; catching sight of something

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English espiaille, from Old French, from espier, to watch; see espy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English espiaille, from Old French, from espier, to watch.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word espial.

Examples

  • By the way, did you mean to have "espial" in your alternative rendering?

    Etruscan inscription REE 59,1993 2009

  • One might understand espial which is itself a troubling hapax to refer to the father of Laris Thefarie, which is the traditional way of naming people in Etruscan inscriptions.

    Etruscan inscription REE 59,1993 2009

  • One might understand espial which is itself a troubling hapax to refer to the father of Laris Thefarie, which is the traditional way of naming people in Etruscan inscriptions.

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • Stephen C. Carlson: "By the way, did you mean to have 'espial' in your alternative rendering?"

    Etruscan inscription REE 59,1993 2009

  • Looking at the photograph, I agree that estial seems to be a better transcription than espial.

    Etruscan inscription REE 59,1993 2009

  • May 17 Corrected typo at the transcription at the very bottom from espial to estial.

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • The inscription REE 59,1993 is often transcribed thus: ecn : turce : laris : θefries : espial : atial : caθas

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • Based on the above picture, could it be possible that espial is a faulty transcription for what is to be read estial with the letter tau instead of pi?

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • Based on the above picture, could it be possible that espial is a faulty transcription for what is to be read estial with the letter tau instead of pi?

    Etruscan inscription REE 59,1993 2009

  • May 17 Corrected typo at the transcription at the very bottom from espial to estial.

    Etruscan inscription REE 59,1993 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.