espreitar

Obscure. From Old Galician-Portuguese espreitar, itself perhaps from Old Occitan espleitar (“to exploit”), or either from Latin spectāre (“to observe”),^[1][2] or more likely explicitare.

• IPA^(key): /espɾejˈtaɾ/

espreitar (first-person singular present espreito, first-person singular preterite espreitei, past participle espreitado)

1. (transitive) to peek at, to peer, to skulk
2. (intransitive) to lurk

• agaitar, aseitar, axexar, esculcar, espiar

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “espreitar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “espreitar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “espreitar”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• “espreitar” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “espreitar”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

From Old Galician-Portuguese espreitar, probably from Vulgar Latin *explicitāre, frequentative of explicāre.

• Hyphenation: es‧prei‧tar

espreitar (first-person singular present espreito, first-person singular preterite espreitei, past participle espreitado)

2. (transitive) to peek at; to peer (to observe while hidden)
4. (intransitive) to lurk (to move about in hiding)
6. (transitive) to analyse; to examine (to inspect carefully or critically)

   Synonyms: analisar, examinar, investigar

• espiar