Compositional etymology designed as a counterpart to the etymology of δεσπότης as δέος (ἐμ)ποιῶν. The master is active and the slave passive, but no word for "to suffer" had the appropriate shape, therefore the word given as etymon is "to look" in so far as a look expresses a state of mind. This etymology is only found in the recent scholia by Tzetzes (another recension has ὅθε καὶ δοῦλος ὁ μετὰ δέους λεύσσων—κἂν νῦν ἀναιδῶς βλέπωσι—, καὶ δεσπότης ὁ δέους ποιητικός).