onlook

English

Alternative forms

• on-look

Etymology 1

From on- +‎ look. Compare Old English onlēċ (“onlook, consideration, regard”).

Noun

onlook (plural onlooks)

1. The act of looking on (something); observation.
   • 1966, Baptist Historical Society, The Baptist quarterly, volume 21, page 103:

     The object of the onlook is taken to be more than physical, more than just sense-experience, therefore it is meta-physical.

2. That which is looked at, regarded, or considered. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (rare) One's perspective or outlook.
   • 2004, Richard Briggs, Words in Action:

     This onlook is certainly foundational to Christianity. […] Religious belief is the conviction (or hope) that one's onlook conforms to an authoritative onlook, a divine onlook.

Further reading

• “onlook”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Etymology 2

From on- +‎ look. Compare Old English onlōcian.

Verb

onlook (third-person singular simple present onlooks, present participle onlooking, simple past and past participle onlooked)

1. (intransitive) To look on or look at; watch; observe; view; regard.
   • 2008, Howard Pyle, The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions:

     So they two fought for so long a time that those who onlooked were astonished at the strength and the courage and the endurance of those two champions, […]

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “onlooker”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• look on