spectator

spectator, observer, beholder, looker-on, onlooker, witness, eyewitness, bystander, kibitzer are comparable when they mean one who sees or looks upon something.

Spectator can be used precisely in place of auditor for one that attends an exhibition, performance, or entertainment which does not involve an appeal to the sense of hearing; thus, one tends to speak of the spectators at a football game, a prizefight, a pageant, a pantomime, or a circus but of the auditors or the audience at a concert, a lecture, or a play. Very often, however, the term is used more broadly to denote one who regards himself or is felt to be wholly apart from and in no manner identified with what is presented to his attention (as by his sight, hearing, or understanding)

{

it is only the spectator of morals who can assume the calm aesthetic attitude— Ellis

}

{

the narrator ... is a sensitive young artist, nominally a Communist, actually a spectator of history, a camera not much involved in life— Ludwig

}

Observer may or may not imply an intent to see, but it usually does suggest, whether one sees by intention or by accident, that one attends closely to details and often keeps a record of them; the term applies especially to those (as scientists) who gather evidence by carefully noting phenomena or the results of experiments or to military or diplomatic officials who are sent by countries not participating in a war or in a meeting of representatives from other nations to watch proceedings closely and to make a report of them; it is also applicable to whoever has formed similar habits and can be more or less relied upon for accuracy

{

it is the man of science who speaks, the unprejudiced observer, the accepter of facts— Huxley

}

{

an observer for the United States at assemblies of the United Nations

}

{

you go about a lot amongst all sorts of people. You are a tolerably honest observer— Conrad

}

{

I had once been a cool observer because some part of me knew that I had more emotion than most and so must protect myself with a cold eye— Mailer

}

Beholder sometimes carries a stronger implication of watching or regarding intently than either of the preceding terms, but it may mean little more than one who sees

{

all the beholders take his part with weeping— Shak.

}

The term is often applicable to one who has been privileged to look intently upon or, sometimes, consider deeply a person or thing with the result that he obtains a clear and accurate impression of that person or thing and is moved by the qualities (as beauty, power, tenderness, or pathos) of what is seen

{

to what extent is beauty subjective, existing only in the mind of the beholder— Hunter Mead

}

{

what the beholder must realize as he looks and ponders is that history is not something in books— Duffus

}

Looker-on and onlooker differ from beholder chiefly in their suggestions of casualness or detachment and in their definite implication of lack of participation

{

there was a great crowd of lookers-on at the fire

}

{

the surgeon refused to operate in the presence of onlookers

}

Either term is sometimes used in place of spectator when the distinction between the one who sees and what he sees is stressed

{

the onlookers, not the participants, see most of the game

}

{

lookers-on often see what familiarity obscures for the participants— Moberly

}

{

they dropped, panting, while the onlookers repeated that it was a shame and somebody ought to stop them— Davis

}

Witness specifically denotes one who has firsthand knowledge and therefore is competent to give testimony

{

no person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act— U. S. Constitution

}

The term sometimes applies to a person who knows because he has seen

{

standing there, I was witness of a little incident that seemed to escape the rest— Quiller-Couch

}

but since witness does not necessarily imply seeing, eyewitness is often preferred as more explicitly implying actual sight

{

there were no eyewitnesses of the collision

}

Uncontrovertible evidence, with occasional corroboration from the eyewitness accounts of the few survivors— Shirer}

Bystander primarily denotes one who stands by when something is happening; sometimes it carries the implication of onlooker

{

the policeman took the names of all the bystanders

}

{

men have been haunted recurrently by the question "Am I my brother's keeper?". . . It is what makes being a bystander more and more impossible— Rothman

}

but at other times it suggests little more than presence at a place

{

difficult for each member of the society really to participate .... He begins to be an onlooker at most of it, then a bystander, and may end up with indifference to the welfare of his society— Kroeber

}

{

a bystander was injured by the explosion

}

Kibitzer specifically applies to one who watches a card game by looking over the shoulders of the players and who may annoy them by offering advice; in extended use the word denotes an onlooker who meddles or makes unwelcome suggestions.