Overhears

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To unintentionally listen in on a conversation held by others without their consent To pick up on spoken words from others while not being part of their discussion To become aware of information communicated by someone else in a manner that they are unaware of
2. To catch spoken words from a nearby conversation without intending to listen
3. To become aware of what others are saying without participating or being invited

Etymology: The verb "overhear" is an inflected form of a much older word, and its earliest sense was nearly the reverse of today's. The Old English "oferhīeran" meant not only "to overhear" but also "to disobey," "to disregard," and "to neglect." A hearer who let a command slip past them was, in effect, refusing to listen, and that refusal sat alongside the accidental catching of speech that the modern word describes. The word is built from "over-" and "hear." Its family is wide across Germanic languages: Dutch "overhoren," German "überhören," and Danish "overhøre" all carry senses linked to hearing or ignoring. The Gothic cousin "ufarhausjan" meant "to disregard, disobey," which shows how far back the sense of ignoring goes. In Middle English the word settled into the sense we use now, catching words one was not meant to hear, while the older senses of neglect and disobedience faded from everyday use.

Synonyms: listens, eavesdrops