Ogler

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈəʊɡələ(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. An individual who watches others in a suggestive or excessively admiring fashion
2. Someone who looks at others with intense or inappropriate interest and attention
3. A person who watches another with a lingering or provocative gaze

Etymology: The word is simply "ogle" with the agent suffix "-er", meaning "one who ogles." The verb "ogle" is the older and more puzzling part. It is thought to come from Dutch or Low German roots related to "oog" (eye), though the exact path is uncertain, and it appears in English by the 1600s. The suffix, by contrast, has a long pedigree: it descends from Latin "-arius," which Old French turned into "-ier," and which English absorbed in Middle English as "-er." That suffix is the reason the word reads so plainly. English has used "-er" to name people by what they do for centuries, so a "baker" bakes and an "ogler" ogles. The pattern is ordinary, and the noun needed no special coinage.

Synonyms: stare, gawk, leer