Now that I have your attention, what I really want to know is if there is an auditory equivalent of voyeurism
Eavesdropping.
There’s gotta be an auditory equivalent. What’s a blind voyeur to do? Anything involving braille would get him arrested.
Well, a basic search doesn’t seem to yield any clear answers, though this site has an interesting suggestion: écouteur. The author of this essay suggests that while “eavesdropping” does describe clandestine listening, it doesn’t have the erotic overtones that the word “voyeur” has.
One could also try and construct a word using the same etymology as the word in question:
From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: voy·eur
Pronunciation: vwä-‘y&r, voi-’&r
Function: noun
Etymology:** French, literally, one who sees, from Middle French, from voir to see, from Latin vidEre** – more at WIT
Date: 1900
“audire” is the Latin infinitve of “To Hear”, but my Middle French is pretty shaky, so the rest is left as an exercise for the student.
Well, I did find the word “acousticophilia” meaning “arousal from sounds” in the Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices. Ecouteur is so much more euphonius, don’t you think?
This is a bit of a tangent but you have hundreds of 1-900 numbers to fill peoples fantasies. If those who call these numbers could be stimulated then I could see that eavsdropping could provide the same as video voyeurism
Thimblegirl… been listening in on the roommates, eh?
Somehow, “acousticophilia” doesn’t really work, IMHO
It sounds like someone who really enjoys concert halls for their rich reverberations and warm sounds, yet is totally turned off by anechoic chambers.
Menwhile, the definition “arousal from sounds” gives me the image of some nasty looking guy in skungy tighty-whites, banging a wooden spoon on a pot and moaning:
''ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh yeaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssss!!!"
Perhaps I should seek therapy.
As long as I’m being Captain Pedantic - the dictionary definitions I’ve seen for eavesdropping seem to refer specifically to listening in on the conversations of other people.
The definition we should be looking to fill is something like
“one who experiences sexual excitement by listening to other people engaged in sexual acts, particularly their presence is unknown.”