eavesdropper
‘to listen secretly to the private conversation of others’
Lexical development traced from the Tamil root:
E. eve-dropper < M.E. eavesdrop < O.E. yfesdrype ‘place around a house where the rainwater drips off the roof’ < O.E. efes ‘edge of a roof’ < Proto-G. ubaswo-/ubiswo ‘vestibule, porch, eaves’ + drip < eev <upo < Tamil uppu