observation

Etymology

From Latin observatio

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɒbzəˈveɪʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃən/
• Hyphenation: ob‧ser‧va‧tion

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

observation (countable and uncountable, plural observations)

1. The act of observing, and the fact of being observed.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, […] . We began to tell her about Mohair and the cotillon, and of our point of observation from the Florentine galleried porch, and she insisted she would join us there.

   • 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146:

     The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.

2. The act of noting and recording some event; or the record of such noting.
3. A remark or comment.
   • Shakespeare

     That's a foolish observation.

   • Alexander Pope

     To observations which ourselves we make / We grow more partial for the observer's sake.

4. A judgement based on observing.
5. Performance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance.
   • Jeremy Taylor

     We are to procure dispensation or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin observātiō. Synchronically analysable as observer +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔp.sɛʁ.va.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

observation f (plural observations)

1. observation

Further reading

• “observation” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).