A person who watches something happen but is not involved in it.
Compound of 'by' (near, at the side) and 'stander' (one who stands). It emerged in English around the 1500s to describe someone standing nearby during an event.
Psychology shows that bystanders often don't help in emergencies—it's called the 'bystander effect'—because everyone assumes someone else will act, which is why witnesses matter so much in legal cases.
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