the.com/pry

means To look or ask closely into something that isn't your business, or to force something open with leverage.

from Pry splits into two tangled roots. The nosy sense comes from Middle English 'prien,' meaning to peer or peep, of uncertain deeper origin. The lever sense ('pry open') arose later in English, likely a back-formation from 'prize' or 'prise' — an old word for leverage itself, borrowed from French 'prise' (a grip or hold, related to 'prendre,' to take). Over time the two senses — peeping and levering — fused in everyday use, so that prying into someone's affairs and prying open a locked drawer feel like the same nosy gesture.