to gaze at something with fixed attention or wonder; to look steadily and intently.
From Middle English 'gazen' combined with the prefix 'a-' (meaning 'in a state of'), evolving from Old English roots. The prefix 'a-' was commonly used to create verbs describing states or conditions.
This word belongs to a whole category of archaic 'a-' verbs like 'afire,' 'ablaze,' and 'adrift'—English once loved using this prefix to turn adjectives into action-verbs, but we've mostly abandoned this pattern in modern speech.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.