overlook

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English overloken,^[2][3] formed from Middle English over + loken (“to look”).^[2][4][5][6] The OED compares the phrasal verb look over.^[4] The noun, recorded from 1584, is formed in the same way, after look over or the verb.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To look upon from above, to survey: before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi.^[4] The sense "to look a thing over, to examine or peruse" is recorded just as early, in the Siege of Jerusalem,^[4][3] and Etymonline gives "to examine carefully" from the late 14th century and "to survey from on high" from about 1400.^[5] Chaucer has the participle overloked twice, meaning looked over or examined.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline traces the two main modern meanings to these two literal senses.^[5] Looking over or beyond something, and so failing to see it, gave the sense "to fail to notice, to disregard", which the OED first finds in 1459 in a Scottish record and Etymonline in the 1520s; from it came "to pass over indulgently".^[4][5] The seemingly opposite sense "to watch over officially, to supervise" was already in Middle English^[3] and is recorded from 1532, in the printed text of Usk's Testament of Love;^[4][5] it is now rare.^[4] From about 1412, in Hoccleve, to 1794 the verb also meant to look down on, to despise.^[4][3] Of a place, "to command a view of" dates from 1632.^[4] In Shakespeare's day overlooking was also a common word for casting the evil eye,^[5] recorded from 1579,^[4] as in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Vile worm, thou wast o'erlooked even in thy birth".^[8] This sense is now chiefly regional:^[4] the English Dialect Dictionary found it in Scotland, Ireland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and the south-west, where those thought overlooked consulted a wise woman or carried a piece of wicken-tree against it.^[9] Johnson (1755) gave "to view from a higher place" as the first sense.^[10] Middle English also had oure-loker, a timekeeper in a monastery (early 15th century).^[5] The noun meant a considering glance or a survey from 1584, an oversight from 1858, and, in American use, a high place with a view of the scene below from 1861.^[4][5][2] In Jamaica the overlook bean (1837) is a plant of the genus Canavalia, which the OED links with the "evil eye" sense of the verb.^[4][6]

Timeline

• before 1400 – to look upon from above, to survey; to look over, to examine.^[4][3]
• c. 1412 – to look down on, to despise (obsolete by 1794).^[4]
• 1459 – to fail to notice, to disregard.^[4]
• 1520s – to look past something and so not see it.^[5]
• 1532 – to watch over officially, to supervise.^[4][5]
• 1579 – to cast the evil eye on, to bewitch.^[4]
• 1584 – noun, a considering glance, a survey.^[4][2]
• 1632 – of a place, to command a view of.^[4]
• 1858 – noun, an oversight.^[4]
• 1861 – noun, US, a high place with a view.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fail to notice or to take into account: The inspectors overlooked a crack in the beam.^[11][4][2]
2. To pass over a fault deliberately; to excuse or ignore: I'll overlook your lateness this time.^[11][4]
3. Of a building or place, to give a view of something from above: The flat overlooks the harbour.^[11][4][2]
4. To look down on something from a higher place.^[11][4][2]
5. (rare) To watch over or supervise.^[4][11]
6. (chiefly regional) To bewitch by looking at with the evil eye.^[4][11][9]
7. (archaic) To look over; to examine or peruse.^[6][2][4]
8. (obsolete, 1412–1794) To look down on; to despise or slight.^[4][2]

Noun

1. (chiefly US) A high place giving a view of the scene below.^[4][2][6]
2. (rare) A failure to notice something; an oversight.^[4][2][6]

Related words

• oversee
• oversight
• look over
• look

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins