espial

From Middle English espiaille, from Old French espier (“to watch”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈspaɪ.əl/, /ɛˈspaɪ.əl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪəl

espial (countable and uncountable, plural espials)

1. An act of noticing or observing.

   Synonym: (obsolete) espy

   • 1814, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in The Corsair, a Tale, London: Thomas Davison, , for John Murray, , →OCLC, stanza XVII, page 30, lines 597–600:

     Secure—unnoted—Conrad's prow pass'd by, / And anchor'd where his ambush meant to lie; / Screen'd from espial by the jutting cape, / That rears on high its rude fantastic shape.

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XLII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume II, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 232:

     She had, however, the comfort of knowing that her lady's wardrobe was in her power, but it did not avail her much, as the servants of the house were so shocked at the Frenchwoman's refusal to nurse her sick lady, that every eye was upon her in the way of espial and condemnation; […]

2. The fact of noticing or observing; a discovery.
3. (obsolete) A scout; a spy.

   Synonym: (obsolete) espy

   • 1601, C Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. , (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: Adam Islip, →OCLC:

     these be most necessarie for the espials belonging vnto a camp

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 265, column 1:

     King. Sweet Gertrude leave us too,
     For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
     That he, as 'twere by accident, may there
     Affront Ophelia. Her Father[ ]and my selfe (lawful espials)
     Will so bestow our selves, that seeing unseene
     We may of their encounter frankely judge

• espy
• spy

• epsila, lipase, plaise