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Posted By: mandy What's the word for ...? - 05/08/06 10:19 PM
I know it's a bit late for this topic, but if anyone can help me track down a particular word, it'll bet you can.

Once, while on a walking tour of London, the guide used the term that everyone suffers, the compulsion we have to peer in the windows of other peoples houses.

No not 'peeping tom'.

You know if your walking down a street, especially at night when it's dark, if there's a house with the curtains open, one cannot help but look in as they pass by. You don't stop to look, but as you're passing, if you can see in you look. As I said, the tour guide mentioned the term for this & I cannot for the life of me remember what it is.

Can you help?
Posted By: TEd Remington Re: What's the word for ...? - 05/08/06 11:58 PM
voyeurism
Posted By: TEd Remington Re: What's the word for ...? - 05/08/06 11:59 PM
And I don't know about the law in England, but it is common law here in the United States that windows are for looking out of, not into.
Posted By: tsuwm Re: What's the word for ...? - 05/09/06 12:30 AM
that's as may be; but here's a word more specific to the question, and probly wrong as well:

cryptoscopophilia - the urge to look through the windows of homes you walk past
Posted By: inselpeter Re: What's the word for ...? - 05/09/06 01:36 AM
It is transparent. Windows are for looking out of by day and into by night. Curtains are common law.
Posted By: Elizabeth Creith Re: What's the word for ...? - 05/09/06 02:40 AM
Quote:

It is transparent. Windows are for looking out of by day and into by night. Curtains are common law.




And, in an urban area, common sense.
Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: What's the word for ...? - 05/09/06 09:46 PM
peepingtommery...?
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