Looking is the act of intentionally focusing visual perception on someone or something, for the purpose of obtaining information, and possibly to convey interest or another sentiment. A large number of troponyms exist to describe variations of looking at things, with prominent examples including the verbs "stare, gaze, gape, gawp, gawk, goggle, glare, glimpse, glance, peek, peep, peer, squint, leer, gloat, and ogle".[1] Additional terms with nuanced meanings include viewing,[2] watching,[3] eyeing,[4][2] observing,[5] beholding,[4] and scanning.[4] Looking is both a physical act of directing the focus of the eyes, and a psychological act of interpreting what is seen and choosing whether to continue looking at it, or to look elsewhere. Where more than one person is involved, looking may lead to eye contact between those doing the looking, which raises further implications for the relationship established through that act.
- ^ Anne Poch Higueras and Isabel Verdaguer Clavera, "The rise of new meanings: A historical journey through English ways of looking at", in Javier E. Díaz Vera, ed., A Changing World of Words: Studies in English Historical Lexicography, Lexicology and Semantics, Volume 141 (2002), p. 563-572.
- ^ a b Madeline Harrison Caviness, Visualizing Women in the Middle Ages: Sight, Spectacle, and Scopic Economy (2001), p. 18.
- ^ John Mowitt, Sounds: The Ambient Humanities (2015), p. 3.
- ^ a b c Charles John Smith, Synonyms Discriminated: A Complete Catalogue of Synonymous Words in the English Language (1871), p. 100-01.
- ^ Ty Clement, Being Ourself (2009), p. 25.