Oversight

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈəʊvəˌsaɪt/

Definitions

1. The act of overseeing or supervising a process or group ; a mistake that occurs by unintentionally failing to notice or attend to something
2. The responsibility for managing, directing, or monitoring an activity or organization ; an accidental error caused by overlooking or neglecting information
3. Careful watch or control to ensure proper conduct or function ; an inadvertent omission or failure to recognize a detail or task

Etymology: The most striking thing about "oversight" is that its two senses point in opposite directions. Its roots are "over" and "sight," so the literal picture is of looking over something, a supervising glance. That is the sense it kept for the careful watch or control meaning. The second sense, an inadvertent omission or a failure to notice a detail, came from the same image: a lapse in supervision is simply something the eye passed over. The noun grew from "over-" and "sight," both English words of long standing, so nothing in its form is borrowed. The verb "oversee," meaning to supervise, shows the same pattern. The modern error sense developed as a natural extension of the supervisory one, since a missed item is what happens when watching fails. A further twist comes from German. The supervisory sense of the verb was a semantic loan from German "Aufsicht," which carries the same idea of looking over and control, so English borrowed a meaning rather than a word.

Synonyms: supervision, monitoring, inspection, management, watchfulness

Antonyms: neglect, overlooking, disregard, carelessness, abandonment