Voyeuse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A woman who secretly observes others, especially in private or intimate situations
2. A female individual who gains pleasure from secretly watching people without their knowledge
3. A woman who covertly watches others, often for voyeuristic interest

Etymology: "Voyeuse" is the feminine form of "voyeur," a French noun for someone who watches others, usually in secret. In French, "voyeuse" carries that same sense of a watcher who is not meant to be seen, and English took it over directly from French, keeping the feminine ending that marks the woman doing the watching. The root is the French verb "voir," to see, which descends from Latin "videre." Adding the agent suffix "-eur" gave "voyeur," and the feminine "-euse" follows the regular French pattern for agent nouns referring to women. The result is a term built from ordinary vocabulary: a person whose job, so to speak, is seeing.