Audire

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To perceive sound through the ear; to give attention or listen carefully to spoken words or sounds; to hear or be informed of something through auditory means
2. The act of receiving acoustic signals by the organ of hearing; focusing one's awareness on sounds or speech; gaining knowledge by hearing or listening
3. The process of sensing sound vibrations via auditory organs; consciously attending to and interpreting verbal or nonverbal auditory stimuli; becoming aware of information through hearing

Etymology: "Audire" is the Latin verb meaning "to hear," and its English descendants are some of the most familiar words built on hearing: "audio," "audience," "auditorium," and "audition." The root goes back to the Proto-Indo-European "*h₂ewd-," which is also the ancestor of the Old English "ēaru" (ear), so the Latin and English words for the organ of hearing share a remote common ancestor. The Latin infinitive ended in "-re," which is why the citation form looks slightly different from the stem "audi-" found in most derived words. Historically, "audire" was not limited to sound in the physical sense. Roman speakers used it for listening to a teacher, obeying a command, or giving someone a hearing in court, and the idea of "hearing" as "heeding" carried over into the later Romance languages. Medieval scholars also used "audire" for attending lectures, which is one reason "audience" came to mean a group of listeners who sat and paid attention, rather than only people who could hear.

Synonyms: listen, hear, attend, heed, eavesdrop

Antonyms: ignore, disregard, neglect, overlook, miss