Scoptophilia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Sexual gratification obtained from watching other people, especially undressed or engaged in intimate activity, often without their knowledge
2. The compulsive enjoyment of looking at sexual objects or acts, a form of erotic interest centred on seeing rather than touching
3. Erotic pleasure taken from observing others, which in psychology may be regarded as a component of human sexual development or a paraphilia

Etymology: Sigmund Freud never wrote "scoptophilia" with a "t" in it. The spelling came from a translation error. Freud's English translators, working on his writings about sexual deviance and the pleasure of looking, produced "scoptophilia," and the mistake stuck alongside the correct form, "scopophilia," which is the spelling most dictionaries now prefer. The word itself is a modern coinage built from Ancient Greek. "Skopos" meant "watcher" or "one who looks out," and it combined with the element "-philia," from "philia," meaning love or fondness for something. Together they describe a fondness for looking. The term appeared in English in the 1920s, when psychoanalysis was spreading and writers needed precise vocabulary for the drives it described.

Synonyms: voyeurism, scopophilia