People who deliberately try to overhear another's conversation without detection are known as Eavesdroppers. In England in the old days, houses had no gutters and drain pipes and instead the roofs extended far past the walls of the house so that rainwater could drip to the ground away from the building. The area between the dripping rain and the walls was originally known as the "eavesdrip", which changed over time to "eavesdrop". The eavesdrop could provide a shelter for passing pedestrians, but they could also overhear conversations going on inside a house, and so became known as "eavesdroppers".