Crepuscule

Crepuscule (pronounced kri-puhs-kyool or krep-uh-skyool)

(1) Twilight; dusk.

(2) By extension, a brief period of transition between two states.

1350-1400: From the Middle French crepuscule, from the thirteenth century Old French crépuscule, from the Latin crepusculum (morning or evening twilight), the construct being crepus- (akin to creper (dark, dusky; obscure)) + -culum, the accusative singular of cūlus (a vulgar term for the buttocks) from the Proto-Italic kūlos, from the primitive Indo-European kul-, from kew- (to cover), the cognates for which included the Old Irish cúl (bottom) and the Lithuanian kẽvalas (skin, cover); it was related to cutis (hide).  Crepuscule, crepuscle & crepusculum are nouns, crepuscular is an adjective; the noun plural is crepuscules.

Before the provision of electricity which by the twentieth century meant much of the world was no longer constrained in their activities by the hours of sunlight, even other forms of artificial light could be variously expensive, unavailable or unreliable so sunlight was important, socially and economically so it’s not surprising a number of words evolved to describe the transition from light to dark including blackness, dark, dusk, gloom, obscurity, twilight, sundown, sunset, black, blackout, brownout, cloudiness, dimness, duskiness, eclipse, lightlessness, murk, murkiness, nightfall, blue hour, gloaming, evenfall, fogfall & smokefall.

Lindsay Lohan in daylight (left), as the crepusculum descends (centre) and in the dark of night (right).

The most attractive of these is twilight, an evocative word and one to which poets have always been drawn, whether to suggest some sense of uncertainty or the last days of life before the darkness of death.  Twilight was from the Middle English twilight & twyelyghte, the construct being twi- (double, half-) +‎ light, thus literally “second light, half-light”.  It was cognate with the Scots twa-licht, twylicht & twielicht (twilight), the Low German twilecht & twelecht (twilight), the Dutch tweelicht (twilight, dusk) and the German Zwielicht (twilight, dusk).  In the Old English, the form was twēone lēoht (twilight).  The curious word twilit (the simple past tense and past participle of twilight) has long intrigued etymologists.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) the earliest known use dates only from 1869 and the speculation is it was coined by someone who found the conventional forms (twilitten & twilighted) inelegant.  Smokefall (the close of the day before nightfall, when fog comes) was apparently used as early as the eleventh century and reflects the use of “smoke” in some regional dialects to refer variously to darkness, smoke and fog.  After thing became more precise, it was re-purposed to describe “the soot which falls from a cloud of smoke” and much later was adopted by those creating special effects to mean “an artificial waterfall of smoke for shows”, the smoke (sometimes combined with a mist of fine water vapor) used to reflect images created by light projection.

The development of languages in cultures of course reflects their environment and priorities although the oft-repeated claim that the Inuit and other nations in arctic and sub-arctic regions had 400 (the number does vary from source to source) words for “snow” are misleading although linguistic anthropologists have explored this on a number of occasions and all have concluded there are at least a few dozen and if the net is cast wider to encompass all aspects of snow (types of tracks in snow, suitability for wildlife etc), then the number is in three figures.  Linguistics is a discipline which illustrates structural functionalism in its pure form: words are created according to need and remain in use if they fulfill a useful purpose.  To most living in urban environments in industrial societies “snow” is adequate for most situations but those running ski-fields need more nuances while for the peoples in arctic regions, the correct description of the type of snow they will soon have to traverse can be the difference between life and death.

Posh

Posh (pronounced posch)

(1) Sumptuously furnished or appointed; luxurious.

(2) Elegant or fashionable; exclusive.

(3) A more expensive version of something mass-produced.

(4) Non-U term for the upper-class or genteel.

(5) Non-U term for speaking English with received pronunciation.

1890s: The source is obscure but it’s thought probably derived from the Gypsy (Romani; Roma) posh & pash (“half”), from the Old Armenian փոշի (pʿoši), the preferred theories accounting for it being associated with wealth and its implications being either because (1) a posh-kooroona (half a crown), once a fair sum, was used metaphorically for anything pricey or (2) because posh-houri (a half-penny) became a general term for money.  A period dictionary of slang defined "posh" as a term for “money” used by the criminal class and notes this was used sometimes specifically to refer to a halfpenny or other small coin and the connection seems soon to have been extended to wealth in general: a slang use documented from the early 1890s meant "dandy" (someone well dressed and apt to "splash cash").  There was also the early-twentieth-century Cambridge University slang poosh (stylish) which may have been a (deliberate) mispronunciation of polish but it’s thought un-related.  A popular folk etymology, dating from 1915, holds it’s an acronym for "port (left) out, starboard (right) home", describing the cooler, north-facing cabins taken by rich passengers travelling from Britain to India under the Raj and back.  However, despite much repetition of the story, there’s no direct evidence for this claim.

Posh and Smart: U and Non-U

A selection of U & non-U words by Professor Alan Ross.

A fun linguistic irony is that posh folk aren’t supposed to use the word, their preference supposedly being “smart”.  In 1954, Alan Ross (1907-1980), Professor of Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, coined "U" (upper-class) and "non-U" (non-Upper-Class) to describe the differences social class makes in their use of English.  While his article included differences in pronunciation and writing styles, it was his list of variations in vocabulary which attracted most interest.  Professor Ross published his illustrative glossary of "U" and "non-U", differentiating the speech patterns in English social classes in a Finnish academic journal and used extracts from Nancy Mitford’s (1904–1973 and the oldest of the Mitford sisters) novel The Pursuit of Love (1945) to provide examples of the patterns of speech of the upper class.  This pleased Nancy Mitford who interpolated the professor’s work into an article about the English gentry she was writing for Stephen Spender's (1909-1995) literary magazine Encounter (1953-1990).  Although not best-pleased her discussion of the Ross thesis was the only part of her piece to attract attention, more amusing was the subsequent re-publication in her slim volume Noblesse Oblige: an Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy (1956) which, augmented with contributions from John Betjeman (1906–1984) and Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966), meant that for decades she was the acknowledged authority on upper-class speech, manners and ways.  Her class-conscious readers had taken it all more seriously than she had intended.

Interest has never gone away and, as differences in the English speaking world gradually diminish from country-to-country, works on the theme often appear in popular journalism.  Helpfully for the status-obsessed English middle-class, magazines like Country Life now and then print guides to help those concerned with such things and, sometimes controversially, there’s the occasional attempt to update the canon.  Right-wing English weekly The Spectator some years ago suggested the (non-U) "toilet" was now entirely classless and could be used, as it was by the rich Americans, instead of the (U) "loo".  Country Life ignored them and later retaliated by claiming the aristocracy's preferred term for their most frequent brush with the plumbing was "lavatory" and that "loo" was "now lower-middle class", apparently a slight worse than "peasant".

Posh vs smart: 2021 Lexus LS 500h (left) vs 1975 Bristol 411 Series V.  The essence of posh is a conjunction of shiny stuff (now expressed as "bling" or "bling-bing" and "pricetaggery", the latter a word coined apparently by the writers of The Simpsons cartoon though it was used by Mr Burns (evil nuclear power-plant owner) to convey a rather different meaning.  Something smart tends to express things like its price tag by being generally understated yet with one or two characteristics effortlessly recognized by smart folk while remaining invisible to most.

Poshmark is an example of the social marketplace, a site which exists to bring together buyer and seller, its revenue generated by "clipping the ticket" on each transaction.  It's thus structurally the same as a general trading site like eBay in that it facilitates B2C (business-to-consumer) and C2C (consumer-to-consumer) sales but as a niche player with a certain speciality, remains viable on less than 1% the turnover of the bigger aggregators because of the internet's global scale.

Epicurean

Epicurean (pronounced ep-i-kyoo-ree-uhm)

(1) The philosophical system or doctrine of Epicurus (circa 340–270 BC), holding that the external world is a series of fortuitous combinations of atoms and that the highest good is pleasure, interpreted as freedom from disturbance or pain (classical meaning from Antiquity).

(2) A fondness for, and enjoyment of the luxuries of life, especially fine food and drink; a person who cultivates a refined taste, especially in food and wine; a connoisseur (modern meaning).

1350–1400: From the Middle English Epicures & Epicureis (Epicureans the plural) from the Latin Epicūrēus (Epicūrus in the Medieval Latin) from the Ancient Greek Ἐπίκουρος (Epíkouros).  The original meaning from the late fourteenth century was a “follower of the philosophical system of Epicurus".  From the 1570s, the sense evolved of "one devoted to pleasure, the adjectival form attested from 1580s in the philosophical sense and from the 1640s with the meaning "pleasure-loving".  The –an suffix is from the Middle English -an, -ain, -ein & -en, from the Old French –ain & -ein, from the Latin -ānus (feminine -āna), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European -nós.  It was appended to (mostly) nouns to create the adjectival form or to nouns to make an agent noun. Epicurean is a noun & adjective, Epicureanism is a noun, epicureanize, epicureanizing & epicureanizedare are verbs; the noun plural is epicureans. 

Mainland Epicure Gold cheese: highly recommended; sharp, crumbly and perfect for toasties.

Epicurus was a Latinized form of Greek Epicouros (circa 340-270 BC), an Athenian philosopher whose teachings were that (1) pleasure is the highest good and (2) virtue the greatest pleasure.  Western culture hungrily absorbed the first lesson but tended to neglect the second.  As late as the 1560s, the name was used pejoratively in the now (mostly) archaic sense of "one who gives himself up to sensual pleasure", especially as applied to gluttonous sybarites, a use well established by 1774. Epicurus's school was opposed by the stoics and it was they who first gave his name a reproachful sense, the non-pejorative meaning "one who cultivates refined taste in food and drink" noted since the 1580s.  The historic synonyms would include voluptuary or decadent, in the modern sense they would be gastronome, gourmet, gourmand, connoisseur or bon vivant.

Aspect views of a bust of Epicurus.

Epicurus, a philosopher in Hellenic Greece, founded a school circa 307 BC in which he developed a system hostile to superstition and divine intervention and believed pleasure leads to the greatest individual and collective good.  The path to this, Epicurus held, was to study the world, live modestly and contain one’s desires so as to not succumb to self-indulgence.  A life such lived, he taught, would allow one to attain a state of ataraxia (tranquility) and aponia (a freedom from fear and pain) and to attain these two states produces human happiness in its purest and highest form.  Happiness therefore comes from the virtues of diligence and restraint; the avoidance of excess.  To be fair to Epicurus, he was not averse to the odd luxury and his school was known for the feasts it held on the twentieth of each month.  Noted Epicurean and philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) maintained the tradition.

A modern Epicurean: Lindsay Lohan at a table of delicacies.

Although austerity may sound unfashionable to those immersed in globalised consumerism, Epicureanism is, in other ways, astonishingly modern.  Epicurus dismissed the influence of gods in the natural world in favor of materialistic explanations and was thus wholly opposed to conventional theism.  Indeed, Epicureanism was the only non-theistic Western philosophy known before the modern age and in older usage, was synonymous with atheism, the reason it was a term used to condemn by many in the medieval Church.  He thought to have taken this to its logical conclusion and held that the Earth and the rest of the universe was but matter and energy arranged by chance in the form we know; a product of physics and chemistry rather than a deity but there must always be caution in that so little has survived for there to be definitive views of the philosophy of Epicurus.  Some of his writings survive but of the hundreds of books he’s said to have written, all that remains are fragments of text and some letters.  Much of what is known comes from Diogenes the Cynic (412 or 404-323 BC) and poem De rerum natura (Of the Nature of Things) by Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus (circa 99–circa 55 BC), a long didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism.

Rome During the Decadence (1547) by Thomas Couture (1815–1879).

The meaning has shifted.  Modern Western audiences have noted the monthly feast Epicurus hosted while turning a deaf ear to his caution that life otherwise should be lived with modesty and restraint.  Epicureanism thus became a synonym for hedonism and in the minds of most is now associated almost exclusively with fine food and drink.  By the late twentieth-century, the word in the sense of its original meaning was barely used outside academic circles but of late there’s been a revival of interest; there are several large Epicurean associations in Greece and a Society of Friends of Epicurus with a sizable following in the English-speaking world.  It’s also attracted the usual suspects: there are French chefs like to style themselves Epicurean as did, perhaps less plausibly, the late Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011).

Indent

Indent (pronounced in-dent)

(1) To form deep recesses in something.

(2) In typography, to begin a line or lines at a greater or less distance from the margin; to set in or back from the margin, as the first line of a paragraph (the “hanging indent” pulls the line out into the margin).

(3) To cut or tear a document (especially a contract or deed in duplicate) so the irregular lines may be matched to confirm its authenticity

(4) To cut or tear the edge of (copies of a document) in an irregular way.

(5) To make tooth-like notches in something; to notch.

(6) To indenture, as an apprentice (mostly archaic).

(7) In inventory control or stock management, to draw an order upon stock.

(8) In military use (originally under the Raj), a requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army (later adopted in commerce generally to mean “to place an order for a good or commodity, usually for foreign goods, historically through an agent).

(9) To enter into an agreement by indenture; make a compact.

(10) In US financial history, a certificate (or intended certificate), issued by the government of the United States at the close of the Revolution, for the principal or interest of the public debt; at the close of the Revolutionary War for the principal or interest due on the public debt.

(13) In steel fabrication, to form a pattern on metal.

(14) An alternative word for indentation.

(15) A class of stamp; an impression made in the paper (as distinct from a wax seal which sat atop and was indented with a seal).

(16) Formally commit to doing something; to engage someone (both obsolete and based on the notion of the arrangement being formalized with an “indented document” even after the practice has ceased).

(17) To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag (obsolete).

1350–1400: From the Middle English, from the Old French endenter, a back formation from indented (having tooth-like notches).  The verb indent in the sense of “to dent or press in” emerged in the early fifteenth century and was etymologically distinct from the contemporary verbs indenten & endenten (to make notches; to give (something) a toothed or jagged appearance (which was used also to convey “to make a legal indenture, make a written formal agreement or contract”)) and was from the twelfth century Old French endenter (to notch or dent, give a serrated edge to) and from the Medieval Latin indentare & indentātus, the construct in Latin being in- (in-) + dent (tooth) from dēns, from the Proto-Italic dents, from the primitive Indo-European dónts and cognate with the Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús), the Sanskrit दत् (dát), the Lithuanian dantìs, the Old English tōþ (source of the English tooth) and the Armenian ատամ (atam), from the primitive Indo-European root dent- (tooth).  The prefix -in is quirky because it can act either to negate or intensify.  The general rule is that when pre-pended to a noun or adjective, it reinforces the quality signified and when pre-pended to an adjective, it negates the meaning, the latter mostly in words borrowed from French.  The Latin prefix in- was from the Proto-Italic en-, from the primitive Indo-European n̥- (not), the zero-grade form of the negative particle ne (not) and was akin to ne-, nē & nī.  In Modern English it is from the Middle English in-, from Old English in- (in, into), from the Proto-Germanic in, from the primitive Indo-European en.  Dent was dialectal variant of the Middle English dunt, dent, dente & dint (a blow; strike; dent), from the Old English dynt (blow, strike, the mark or noise of a blow), from the Proto-Germanic duntiz (a blow) and akin to the Old Norse dyntr (dint).  Indent, indenture & indenting are nouns & verbs, indenter, indention, indentation & indentor are nouns, indented is a verb & adjective and indentable is an adjective; the noun plural is indents.

Scriptum super libros sententiarum Petri Lombardi, Liber I (Commentary on the Book I of the Sentences of Peter Lombard) by Italian Dominican friar, philosopher & theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), transcribed in Latin as a decorated manuscript on paper by an unknown scribe in central Italy in the mid-late fifteenth century.  Still sometimes used in newspaper and magazine publishing, the "Drop Cap" is a disproportionately large letter which appears as the first in a sentence and the practice created the most obvious need for an indent.  Otherwise the indent appeared as a blank space to indicate the start of a new paragraph, a technique some still use.

The original significance of “indented documents” was they were an analogue version of modern digital cryptography such as the need for both public and private “keys” to make a file accessible.  The noun indenture was a late fourteenth century form meaning (written formal contract for services (between master and apprentice, etc), a deed with mutual covenants), from the Anglo-French endenture, from the Old French endenteure (indentation), from endenter (to notch or dent).  The classic indented document was a contact or agreement of some kind created in two (or more) parts on a single sheet of parchment which was then cut in an irregular zigzag (ie an “indented” line) with each party retaining their piece.  Each part of the parchment could be authenticated by matching its jagged edge with that of another part.  The forms indented & indenting were known by the late fourteenth century while the additional of indent to the jargon of mechanical printing to describe “the insertion of a blank space to force text inward” dates from the 1670 although the idea of an indent being “a cut or notch in a margin” was in use in the 1590s, derived from the verb.  There is also evidence indent was used in the late 1400s the sense of “a written agreement” (ie the documents cut from the single sheet of parchment) as a scribe’s short form of the formal term endenture."  That practice arose because ink and parchment were both expensive and over many pages, money would be saved if the number of letters used was reduced and the same tactic lasted well into the twentieth century because those sending telegrams were charged by the letter.  Unfortunately, different scribes sometimes used different abbreviations which can make the reading of medieval texts a challenge.

Prelude, dent & aftermath: Lindsay Lohan out driving (left), the big dent (centre) and after being fixed (right).

In 2005, Lindsay Lohan went for a drive around Los Angeles in her Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG roadster.  It didn’t end well.  Based on the R230 (2001-2011) platform, the SL 65 AMG was produced between 2004-2012, all versions rated in excess of 600 horsepower, something perhaps not a wise choice for someone with no background handling such machinery though it could have been worse, the factory building 350 of the even more powerful SL 65 Black Series, the third occasion an SL was offered without a soft-top and the second time one had been configured with a fixed-roof.  However, by 2007, all dents had been repaired and the car (California registration 5LZF057), detailed & simonized, was being offered for sale in Texas, the mileage stated as 6207.  Bidding was said to be “healthy” so all's well that ends well.

The noun indentation was first used in 1728 do describe “a cut, notch or incision at the margin or edge of something” and after 1847 the word was used to describe “a dent or impression; a small hollow or depression, a slight pit” which was used in everything from metal-working & carpentry to pastry chefs making pies.  The significance was that usually an indentation was deliberate while a dent was the consequence of an accident.  The now rare indention was a noun dating from 1763 and was an irregular formation from indent and again gained its utility by distinguishing between marginal notches and dents but, in the way of such things, both seem often to have been used interchangeably. The familiar noun dent (a blow; strike; dent) in the sense of “an indentation, a hollow mark made by a blow or pressure" was known by the 1560 and although there’s no documentary evidence, most etymologists assume it was coined under the influence of indent.

Ordinal

Ordinal (pronounced awr-dn-uhl)

(1) In botany and zoology, of, relating to, or characteristic of an order in the biological classification of plants or animals.

(2) Of or relating to order, rank, or position in a series; denoting a certain position in a sequence of numbers.

(3) In church administration, a directory of ecclesiastical services.

(4) In church administration, a book containing the forms for the ordination of priests, consecration of bishops etc.

(5) In numbering conventions (usually as ordinal numeral), any of the numbers that express degree, quality, or position in a series, as first, second, and third (and thus distinguished from cardinal numbers).

(6) In mathematics, a symbol denoting both the cardinal number and the ordering of a given set, being identical for two ordered sets having elements that can be placed into one-to-one correspondence, the correspondence preserving the order of the elements; in logic maths a measure of not only the size of a set but also the order of its elements.

1350–1400: Middle English from the Old French ordinel from the Medieval Latin ōrdināle, noun use of the neuter of ōrdinālis (showing order, denoting an order of succession), the sense being “orderly”, ōrdinālis denoting order or place in a series, from Latin ōrdō (order), (genitive ordinis), the construct being ōrdō (order) + -alia (the Latin adjectival suffix).  The first sense of ordinal was that adopted to describe ecclesiastical documents, the meaning "marking the place or position of an object in an order or series" unknown until the 1590s.  Ordinal is a noun and adjective, the adverb is ordinally.

Conventions

In English there are conventions to guide the way written text is handled in oral speech.  Where a word or phrase, however familiar in English, remains foreign, it should, when spoken, be rendered in translation so, the written text “Hillary Clinton is, inter alia, crooked”, is spoken as “Hillary Clinton is, among other things, crooked.”  Where a foreign word or phrase has been assimilated into English it is treated as native so the written text “Hillary Clinton’s statement was the usual mix of lies, half-truths, evasions etc.” is spoken as “Hillary Clinton’s statement was the usual mix of lies, half-truths, evasions etcetera.”  Note the usual shortened form (etc) has traditionally always been followed by a full-stop but there is a welcome revisionist movement which argues it too has become an English word (as etcetera is an anglicized form of the Latin et cetera) and thus needs no longer to be treated as a truncation.

Where a foreign word or phrase, however familiar in English, depends for technical or other reasons on the original form to convey its meaning, it should be spoken as written.  Words of this class are often legal Latin such as obiter dictum (a judge's expression of opinion not essential to the verdict and thus not binding as a precedent) and habeas corpus (now a mechanism to challenge the lawfulness of a detention).  Status quo is well-known and widely used as kind of verbal shorthand to avoid clumsy English constructions yet the Status Quo is an Ottoman era firman (decree) which defines certain unchanging understandings among religious communities with respect to nine shared religious sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem and to translate this to anything else would rob it of the meaning which relies on its historic context.

A DOB written as 07-02-86 is generally understood by Americans but 02 Jul 1986 is preferable because internationally it's unambiguous.  The ordinal numbers (1^st (first), 2^nd (second), 3^rd (third), 4^th (fourth) etc) which sometimes still appear in written text, usually as superscript (set slightly above the normal line of type) reflect actual speech and are often an invaluable aid to the flow and rhythm of text.  However, when used to write dates, they’re wholly unnecessary, a “…needless tribute by the written word to the spoken…” in the words of Randolph Churchill (1911-1968) in a note to his father (one of the few of Randolph’s opinions of which he approved).  The preferred format for dates is 2 Jul 1986 (or 2 July 1986 if added formality is needed); as Randolph’s memo explained, this removes the ambiguity which is inevitable if formats like 2/7/1986 or 7/2/1986 are used and placing the word of the month in the middle separates the two numbers.  Randolph Churchill was writing in 1949, long before the storage of data in digital form entered the mainstream.  Because of the way computers usually handle the indexing of such things, if using the date to name files, sub-directories etc, advice has long been to adopt the convention YYYYMMDD (19860702).  That however is but a Y2K approach and may, eight-thousand years odd from now, contribute to the Y10K crisis.  Some have been pondering this: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2550

Eavesdrop

Eavesdrop (pronounced eevz-drop)

(1) Secretly to listen to the private conversation of others; to hear a conversation one is not intended to hear.

(2) To eavesdrop upon.

(3) A concealed aperture through which an occupant of a building can surreptitiously listen to people talking at an entrance to the building.

(4) Water that drips from the eaves (also as eavesdrip) (rare).

(5) The ground around a structure on which such water drips (rare).

(6) In zoology, to listen for another organism's calls, so as to exploit them.

Pre 900: From the Middle English evesdrope & evesdripe, from the Old English yfesdrype (water dripping from the eaves).  The late Middle English evisdroppyr was apparently literally “one who stands on the eavesdrops in order to listen to conversations inside the house”.  The ultimate source may be the Old Norse upsardropi, the construct being ups (eaves) + -sar- (container) + dropi (a drop).  The noun eavesdropper seems to have come into use in the mid-fifteenth century in the sense of “one who lurks at walls or windows to overhear what's going on inside.”  The same form was adopted for those who “listened in” even if well away from eaves such as those inside listening through keyholes and in the security community, it’s also used informally of wiretaps, listening devices etc.  The word eavesreading was coined on the model of eavesdropping and meant “surreptitiously to read something”; it’s main use appears to be in spy fiction but the extent of actual use among spies is of course difficult to estimate.  Eavesdrop & eavesdropping are nouns & verbs, eavesdropped is a verb, eavesdropper is a noun and eavesdroppingly is an adverb; the noun plural is eavesdrops (the more common probably eavesdroppers).

Cross-section of eaves.

Eaves (eave the alternative form) was from the Middle English eves (projecting lower edge of a roof), from the Old English efes, yfes & ofes (edge of a roof), from the Proto-West Germanic ubisu (hall), from the Proto-Germanic ubiswō (and related to the Gothic ubizwa, the Old High German obasa (hall; porch; roof) and perhaps ultimately from the primitive Indo-European upér (above; over) from which English ultimately gained “over”.  Drop in this context was from the Late Middle English droppe, from the Middle English drope (small quantity of liquid; small or least amount of something; pendant jewel; dripping of a liquid; a shower; nasal flow, catarrh; speck, spot; blemish; disease causing spots on the skin), from the Old English dropa (a drop), from the Proto-West Germanic dropō (drop of liquid), from the Proto-Germanic drupô (drop of liquid), from the primitive Indo-European drewb- (to crumble, to grind away).

Long distance eavesdropping: Marketed as an "Extreme Sound Amplifier Professional Bionic Ear Listening Device", Amazon notes the Guppy is ideal for bird watchers, nature lovers and outdoor because it can detect "voice equivalent sounds" at distances up to 75 m (250 feet).  Recommended for children aged six and above, it's said to improve children's audiovisual perception, help them explore nature and stimulate their imagination and curiosity.  While Amazon doesn’t dwell on the matter, the Guppy could be used as a dual-purpose device.

The noun eavesdrop described (1) the dripping of rain-water from the eaves of a building (2) the space of ground onto which the water fell and (3) the container at the end of a pipe or spout which collected the water so it would be available for other uses such as gardening, cleaning etc.  In the ninth century the word was eavesdrip which in early Modern English evolved to become eavesdrop.  The Old English words efes, yfes & ofes (edge of a roof) from which eaves was derived were all singular but in the way these thing happened in the Medieval period, the final -s was assumed to indicate a plural (on the basis of the relationship enjoyed by many other words), thus the emergence of the Middle English eves which later became eaves, reputedly because with “Eve” appearing in version of the Bible, the clergy objected to the spelling being used for a form of drainage which was a remarkable concern for the one they held responsible for original sin, the downfall of man and the banishment of humanity from the Garden of Eden.

Stasi eavesdropping ceremony: Stasi officers undertook their duties seriously but there were also office parties where dark good humor was on show.  Operatives who have proved outstanding at eavesdropping and eavesreading could be "dubbed" and conferred with a "knighthood" in the Abhörgerät der Ordnung alten (Ancient order of the Wiretap).  The Stasi (Ministry for State Security) fulfilled in the German Democratic Republic (the GDR (1949-1990), the old East Germany) a function similar to that of the Soviet KGB and is renowned still as history's most prolific eavesdroppers, their surveillance of written and oral communication so extensive and intrusive that for much of the state's existence, individuals needed to assume their telephone calls were being monitored.  The Stasi's (1950-1990) capacity to watch an entire population may soon be exceeded because advances in artificial intelligence (AI) mean it may become possible for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) literally to listen to every telephone call and read every electronic exchange.  In China, it may be that carrier pigeons and typewriters will be made illegal as the CCP moves to ensure there is no communication of which they are unaware.

Lindsay Lohan under the eaves, possibly eavesdropping.

The noun eavesdrop (also as eavesdroppe) & eavesdrip had a significance beyond domestic storm-water management because they were measurements used first in ancient customary law and later in early English common law as part of what would now be thought a building or planning code.  Under the doctrine, a land-holder was not permitted to erect a roofed-structure so close to the boundary of his land that the water which fell from the roof might fall upon and damage adjacent land.  In customary law, the actual distance was expressed in different ways including “the extended arm-span of a man” (sometimes the parish priest was nominated) but when English measures were (more or less) standardized, that became “not lesse than two footes”.  Wind and water being what they are, it was obviously not possible to guarantee absolutely none of the water from one’s roof would end up on a neighbor’s land so there emerged the common law “right of drip” which technically created an easement upon the affected land, restricted to drips from the roof.  That would now be understood under the notion of “reasonableness” and drips would be held to be reasonable while torrents would not and an order of rectification could be made to demand the torrents in some way be reduced to drips.  This protected the neighbor (the dripee one might say) from water-damage but also meant that if economic benefit was derived from even a torrent (such as free agricultural irrigation), the dripor could not claim for a share of value against the dripee.

The noun eavesdropper was created to refer to “one who stands within the eavesdrop of a house to overhear conversations inside” and the first known record of use in the Presentments at the Sessions of the Borough of Nottingham, 1 October 1487, written in the Legal Latin of the day:

Juratores Constabulariorum dicunt, super sacramentum suum, quod Henricus Rowley, de Notingham, in Comitatu villae Notingham, yoman, die Jovis proximo ante festum Sancti Michaëlis Archangeli, anno regni Regis Henrici Septimi tertio, ac diversis aliis diebus et vicibus, communiter et usualiter, apud Notingham praedictam, est communis evysdropper et vagator in noctibus, in perturbationem populi Domini Regis et contra pacem suam.

The jurors of the Constables say, upon their oath, that Henry Rowley, of Nottingham, in the County of the town of Nottingham, yeoman, on Thursday next before the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, in the third year of the reign of King Henry the Seventh, and upon divers other days and occasions, commonly and usually, at Nottingham aforesaid, is a common eavesdropper and night-wanderer, to the perturbation of our Lord the King’s folk and against his peace.

There may in the charge have been the implication Henry Rowley was more than a quidnunc keeping up with things and may have been “casing the joint” with nefarious intent but in its pure sense eavesdropper was later defined in one of the first dictionaries of legal terms; Les Termes de la Ley: or Certaine difficult and obscure Words and Termes of the Common Lawes and Statutes of this Realme now in vse expounded and explained (London, 1636), by John Rastell (circa 1475-1536) and his son, William Rastell (circa 1508-1565):

Euesdroppers are such as stand vnder walls or windowes by night or day to heare newes, and to carry them to others to make strife and debate amongst their Neighbors, those are euill members in the Cōmon-wealth, and therefore by the Statute of Westminst. (I. cap. 33.) are to bee punished.

Etymologists differ on the matter of sequence.  Because the verb eavesdrop is first attested more than a century after the noun eavesdropper, some maintain former is a back-formation while others (on the basis of much linguistic precedent) suggest the very existence of the noun implies the pre-existence of the verb.  Sill the earliest use of the verb known to be extant was in the writings of the English playwright & poet George Chapman (circa 1560-1634) in the comedy Sir Gyles Goosecappe Knight (London, 1606) in which Momford and Lord Furnifall are in the house and plotting to repair to the gallery outside in order secretly to listen to the conversation between Clarence and the physician, Doctor Versey:

Momford: Bring hether the key of the gallerie, me thought I heard the Doctor and my friend.

Lord Furnifall: I did so sure.

Momford: Peace then a while my Lord.  We will be bold to evesdroppe.

It’s a forgotten play but Chapman is not because his translations of the Iliad (1598-1611) and the Odyssey (1616) rank with the most highly regarded in English and the evocative beauty of his style influenced many.  It was his work which inspired the Romantic poet John Keats to write the sonnet On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer (1816) by John Keats (1795–1821).

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Irregardless

Irregardless (pronounced ir-i-gahrd-lis)

A historically nonstandard adverb which means “regardless”.  Some descriptive dictionaries have accepted it as a word; prescriptive volumes have not.

Circa 1870s: Thought probably a portmanteau of irrespective +‎ regardless, the word can also be analysed as ir- (from the Latin prefix -ir, an assimilated form of in- (used before r-) used for expressing negation; not) +‎ regardless because it may be the prefix ir- was added to amplify the negative in regardless, as plain negatives did at the time the word came into use (and continue still to do in dialects).

The fetish

Historically, irregardless has been thought non-standard because of the two negative elements ir- and –less, most authorities suggesting it was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable.  Technically, it’s an erroneous word which etymologically, means the opposite of what it is used to express; it means “regardless” so is entirely unnecessary.  However, many dictionaries include a definition while noting it’s a non-standard form, the more rigorous insisting it’s incorrect, noting the controversy since the early twentieth century and suggesting "regardless" should instead be used.  So it's a a nonsensical word, as the ir- prefix usually functions to indicate negation and the only possible case to be made is the ir- could operate as an intensifier; few feel moved to make the case.  Similar ir- words, while rare, do exist in English, including irremediless ("remediless"), irresistless ("resistless") and irrelentlessly ("relentlessly”) but irregardless remains incorrect, even sympathetic dictionaries noting they record an evolving language as it is spoken, not as advocates for adoption of non-standard forms.

The Collins Dictionary finds little to suggest use has ever been anything but rare.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) cites a 1912 entry in the Wentworth American Dialect Dictionary as the first instance of official record, the entry suggesting an origin in western Indiana though the it seems the word was in use in South Carolina before Indiana became a territory.  Disputes were noted as early as 1923 and it was long regarded as an oddity, a North American colloquialism and, being a recent one, subject to more scholarly criticism than a word like “ain’t” which enjoys an ancient genealogy.  Some publications suggest its only use is as a class-identifier or educational marker.  That may be of limited utility because there’s little evidence the word is in even rare use and it seems editors of dictionaries feel compelled to include an entry either to (1) express disapprobation or (2) note that regardless of the etymological rights and wrongs, decades of use justify acknowledgement.  It’s thus become something of a lexicographical fetish; natural examples of this word in the corpora of written and spoken English being overwhelmingly outnumbered by instances where it appears only for the purpose of being condemned as incorrect.

It is though a perfect Mean Girls (2004) word.  Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert (b 1982)) illustrates.