The meaning of the word "overlooked" confuses me

You're right, overlooked is almost like it's literal, like you look over the top of something, and don't see it.

You've found a contronym! The original meaning was the intuitive version! Over time it came to have both meanings, but more commonly the "wrong" version is used nowadays.  I'm not sure why, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's because if instead of looking "at" something, you looked "over" it instead, you might not see it.

Trying to understand words by analysis, by breaking down into fundamental pieces, is often a bad idea and counterproductive. When a native speaker hears 'overlook' they don't think 'over + look' they just understand it. A lot of English words don't make any sense if you break them down or are actively nonsense. Greater minds than yours have tried to make English rational, and all of them have failed.

I think it’s “over” as in “past”. Like they’re being looked past and other things are getting the attention.

I imagine it as someone short lol -- it's like you are looking over their head, and so you don't notice them

The overs mean different things, in overhyped the 'over' means 'too much', in overlooked the 'over' has the more literal meaning of physically looking over the thing

Also if you do break it down, something can’t be ‘looked’, either too much or too little, while things can be hyped or estimated.

Imagine you are walking through a grassy field, and you step on a snake that you didnt notice. You literally overlooked the snake, as in you were looking over them and you missed noticing. Over in this case isn't used to mean too much, it means above

"Over" is used in a similar way in other words: * *Passed over*. If you think you deserved a promotion at work, and other people got a promotion but you were left out, you might say, "I got passed over for a promotion at work." * *Skipped over.* This is similar to passed over. If the trash truck is going down the street collecting trash but they forget yours, then when you call customer service, you might say, "The truck came by, but they skipped over my house." * *Oversight*. This one is a bit tricky because it can mean two opposite things. If a government regulator does inspections or audits of industry, then that's "oversight" which means they have a view into what is happening in the industry. But if you make a mistake and fail to do something because you didn't notice it, that's "*an* oversight" which means you looked past it without seeing it. (Only "oversight" can mean a mistake; "oversee" and "oversaw" always mean to supervise.) So this is actually not that weird in English. It's kind of a common thread in several words / phrases.

I used to have a colleague who would regularly say "It's a huge undersight" instead of oversight. This post reminded me of him and made me smile!

"over looked" seems to use the meaning of "over" that indicates location. The tree hangs over the hill. I overlooked it - suggests that my eyes passed near the object but I didn't look directly at it. When you skim a newspaper article, it is easy to overlook details - skimming by definition means NOT looking at every detail carefully, so your eyes might just pass over the details you wanted. I agree with u/Ill-Salamander that breaking things down into pieces doesn't work well in every situation. There are so many meanings to each word that it is too easy to break things down with the wrong meaning, and also quite a few phrases are based on obsolete meanings.

Some of these "over" words are confusing. Even English speakers can get themselves in a pickle about "overtake" (mistakenly used to mean "take over", when in fact it means to go past someone or something) and "oversight" (which can mean to manage something, but can also mean to have made a mistake). (English idiom: "in a pickle" - to be in a state of mild confusion or distress.)

Compare with oversee if you want the see how far logic takes you......

Your analysis is correct. (And a little bit amusing.) And yes, now that I think of it, it SHOULD be "underlooked." But it isn't, and you will sound foolish if you try to make it so, during your conversations with native speakers. Not only that, if you say the word "underlook", you will confuse them as much as you yourself are confused when they say "overlook." To put it plainly: A thing that has been overlooked is a thing that has been underestimated.

It doesn't matter at all what you or anyone thinks it "should be", it is what it is. Deal with it.

I think of it like it appears so little that everyone is looking over and past it and does not really see it.

I think of it like this. When you’re **looking** for something, and you look right at it, but somehow your eyes skips **over** it and you don’t see it, that’s “overlooking something.” However, there is also “overlooking something” in the way that Flagstaff Peak is a wedding venue at the top of a mountain overlooking Boulder, Colorado.

It is overlooked or underseen.  Overlook means you were looking for something, but you looked too high. The poor thing was too small for you to see it. So you looked over it.  If something is underseen, it has been seen, but at a rate under which it should have been. 

"look" and "hype" aren't synonyms, so *over*\-ing them shouldn't mean the same thing. and the meanings of 'over' in each are different. to overlook something is to fail to see it because you're (mistakenly) intent on looking at something else. and the implication is that the thing you're looking at is farther away than the thing that's being 'overlooked'. so you should see the thing that's closer, but you don't; you're looking over it. it's the 'above' version of 'over'. if you would just look down you'd see the thing that's right in front of you. to overhype something is to excessively hype it. it's the 'too much' version of 'over'.

If you “look over” something, you review it carefully, but if you “overlook” it, you missed it completely!

One thing you need to know about English prefixes, is most of them have 4 or 5 meanings.

Overlooked uses over like "overcame" - over in this word means more like "above' than "too much" - as in over hyped. So you looked above it- as in it is beneath your notice. The word "survive" works this way too (sur - over and vive- live. Literally "over-live"

> Apparently, when people say something is overlooked, it means that the thing does not get enough recognition for what it deserves, is that correct? Yes, that is what it means. It can also mean to fail to notice something. As in, "She overlooked the small beads" (She didn't notice the small beads). > Shouldn't it be "underlooked"? Your reasoning makes sense! If "over" in this word meant "it is done too much" it would make more sense to say "underlooked". It would have to be "underlooked (at)", though. Here's how I think about it: If you say, "Jump **over** the hole", this means the person jumping is going above the hole or over the top of the hole. So to look ***over*** something can\* mean to look above it or over top of it, missing the object itself. So when we say people have overlooked something, it means that they didn't look closely enough to see the value it has, or didn't notice it at all. It was skipped over. \*Note - To "look over" something can also mean to read written material, but that is a different phrase. As in, "look over this paperwork before you sign it".

You're right, it's weird. "Overlooked" is more metaphorically looking over the top of something, so you wouldn't see it.

Over” can mean a few different things and it has a different meaning in overlook than in overestimate. Overlooked comes from the verb “to overlook” which means to fail to notice something. This can be intentional or unintentional. Perhaps you can imagine it’s like you’re looking across a field for something but it’s below your line of sight. You overlook it. So something that’s overlooked isn’t really noticed. And hence it isn’t getting the recognition it deserves. Whereas the meaning of “over” on overhype and overestimated is different. It means at a higher level or layer or amount. And here it really means “too much”. Over in overlooked = expressing passage, movement, trajectory across an area Over in overhyped = higher amount; too much

Think of overlooking as looking over something instead of looking directly at it, but not in a literal sense. You've missed how much value the thing has because you've overlooked it. The other examples mean over to intensify the word. So to overestimate would mean you have estimated well above (in significance/value) what you should while overlook is like looking above (and missing what you should see). I hope that can help ease the confusion because until you brought it up I never thought about how they nearly opposites