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Origin and history of suspect

suspect(adj.)

early 14c., "suspected of wrongdoing, under or open to suspicion; of dubious or bad character;" mid-14c., "regarded with mistrust, liable to arouse suspicion," from Old French suspect (14c.) and directly from Latin suspectus "suspected, regarded with suspicion or mistrust." This is the past participle of suspicere "look up at, look upward," figuratively "look up to, admire, respect;" also "look at secretly, look askance at," hence, figuratively, "mistrust, regard with suspicion." It is from an assimilated form of sub "up to" (see sub-) + specere "to look at" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe").

The notion seems to be "look at secretly," hence, "look at distrustfully." Related: Suspectly.

also from early 14c.

suspect(n.)

"a suspected person," especially "one imagined on more or less evidence to have committed a crime or offense," 1590s, from suspect (adj.). Earlier as a noun it meant "a suspicion, mistrust" (late 14c.), especially in have (or hold) in suspect "be suspicious of," from noun use of Medieval Latin suspectus.

also from 1590s

suspect(v.)

mid-15c., "imagine (someone) to be guilty on slight or no proof; hold to be uncertain, doubt, mistrust," from suspect (adj.) and in part from French suspecter or directly from Latin suspectare "to mistrust," frequentative of suspicere.

In the general sense "imagine to exist, fancy as possible or likely," by 1540s. As "hold to be uncertain, doubt, mistrust" by 1560s. Related: Suspected; suspecting.

also from mid-15c.

Entries linking to suspect

suspicion(n.)

c. 1300, suspecioun, "act of suspecting; unverified conjecture of wrongdoing; mistrust, distrust with but slight proof; feeling or passion excited by signs of danger," from Anglo-French suspecioun, corresponding to Old French suspicion, sospeçon "mistrust, suspicion" (Modern French soupçon) and directly from Late Latin suspectionem (nominative suspectio) "mistrust, suspicion, fear, awe," noun of state from past-participle stem of Latin suspicere "look up at" (see suspect (adj.)).

The spelling in English was influenced 14c. by learned Old French forms closer to Latin suspicionem (compare soupcon).

It is attested by late 14c. as "a suspicious notion," by c. 1400 as "imagination of something as possible or likely." As a verb meaning "to suspect," it figures in literary representations of U.S. Western (Kentucky) slang from 1830s. Middle English and early Modern English also had suspection.

"Suspicion" words in other Indo-European languages also tend to be words for "think" or "look" with prefixes meaning "under, behind;" such as Greek hypopsia (from hypo "under" + opsis "sight"), hyponoia (noein "to think"); Lettish aizduomas (aiz "behind" + duomat "think"); Russian podozrenie (Slavic podu "under," Old Church Slavonic zireti "see, look"); Dutch achterdocht (achter "behind" + denken "to think").

suspicious(adj.)

mid-14c., suspecious, "regarded with or exciting suspicion, open to doubt;" late 14c., "full of suspicion, inclined to suspect or believe ill;" from Anglo-French suspecious, Old French suspicios (Modern French suspectieux), from Latin suspiciosus, suspitiosus "exciting suspicion, causing mistrust," also "full of suspicion, ready to suspect," from stem of suspicere "look up at" (see suspect (adj.)). Related: suspiciously; suspiciousness. In Middle English also suspitious (from Old French variant suspitieux).

The senses that flow in opposite directions, already present in classical Latin, have caused continued confusion. The word also is attested in English from late 15c. as "indicating suspicion" and also "liable to cause suspicion."

Poe (c. 1845) proposed suspectful should take one of the senses (it had been used since 1580s as "mistrustful"). Other available words include suspicable "liable to suspect; that may be suspected" (1610s, from Late Latin suspicabilis "conjectural"); suspicional "of or pertaining to suspicion" (1890, in psychology). Suspectable "open to suspicion" is from 1748, while suspectuous "inclined to feel suspicion" is by 1650s.

Dialectic and suspicious would, each, advantageously be eased of an acceptation, by the adoption of dialectal and suspectable. [Fitzedward Hall, "Modern English," 1873]