spy: [13] A spy is etymologically someone who ‘looks’. The word was adapted from Old French espie ‘watcher, spy’, a derivative of espier ‘watch, spy’ (from which English gets the verb spy, and also espy [14] and espionage [18]). This in turn was formed from the borrowed Germanic base *spekh- (source of German spähen ‘reconnoitre, watch’ and Swedish speja ‘spy, scout’), which went back ultimately to Indo- European *spek- ‘look’ (source of English inspect, spectator, etc). => espionage, expect, inspect, special, spectator
spy (v.)
mid-13c., "to watch stealthily," from Old French espiier "observe, watch closely, spy on, find out," probably from Frankish *spehon or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *spehon- (cognates: Old High German *spehon "to look out for, scout, spy," German spähen "to spy," Middle Dutch spien), the Germanic survivals of the productive PIE root *spek- "to look, observe" (see scope (n.1)). Old English had spyrian "make a track, go, pursue; ask about, investigate," also a noun spyrigend "investigator, inquirer." Italian spiare, Spanish espiar also are Germanic loan-words. Meaning "to catch sight of" is from c. 1300. Children's game I spy so called by 1946.
spy (n.)
mid-13c., "one who spies on another," from Old French espie "spy, look-out, scout" (Modern French épie), probably from a Germanic source related to spy (v.).
双语例句
1. He was jailed for five years as an alleged British spy.
他被指控为英国间谍，入狱关押了5年。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I never agreed to spy against the United States.
我从来没有答应去当间谍刺探美国的情报。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The spy returned to deliver a second batch of classified documents.
那名间谍返回来递送第二批机密文件。
来自柯林斯例句
4. "She thinks you're a spy," Scott said matter-of-factly.
