sospecha

Forms

sospecha f (plural sospechas)^[1] Old Spanish has sospecha almost always, beside rare sospeia and sospeita.^[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Spanish sospechar (“to suspect”).^[3][4][5] The noun is in fact recorded first, in the Cid, while the verb appears in Berceo.^[6][5]

The verb is inherited from the imperial Latin suspectō (“to look up at; to mistrust”), which replaced classical suspicor.^[6][5][7][1] It survives in all the Romance languages except Romanian and French.^[6] The Latin verb is a frequentative of suspiciō (“to look up at”), formed on its past participle suspectus.^[1][8] The OLD gives both senses, “to gaze up at” and “to look with mistrust upon”.^[8]

Beside the noun stand Galician sospeita, Aragonese suspeita and Catalan sospita.^[4] Autoridades still derived the noun from the Latin noun for “suspicion”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the proverb-like line Non duerme sin sospecha qui aver trae monedado “He who carries coined money does not sleep without misgiving”.^[6][10] The first record without a later copy is a heading of the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), Dela sospecha delos padres.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The legal texts of the 13th century, such as the fueros of Cáceres and Usagre, use it for the suspicion from which an accused man had to clear himself by oath.^[10] The phrase sin sospecha meant “unexpectedly” in Alfonso X's prose, and the noun also meant distrust or misgiving.^[11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defined it as an imagination founded on conjecture, with misgiving about the truth, and recorded the germanía (thieves' cant) sense “inn”, taken from Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary of 1609.^[9][12] In 1869 the Academy narrowed it to a misgiving about something unfavourable, and in 1884 it gave the present definition, “the act and effect of suspecting”, with the legal phrase sospechas vehementes.^[13][14] Moliner adds that it is an idea formed on mere indications.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[6][10]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first record without a later copy.^[10]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses sin sospecha for “unexpectedly”.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin suspicio and suspicatus.^[16]
• 1528 – first record from the Americas, in Honduras, in the form suspecha.^[17]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary of germanía gives the sense “inn”.^[12]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as the act and effect of suspecting.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. suspicion: the act and effect of suspecting; an idea about something formed only on signs or indications: Tengo la sospecha de que nos ocultan algo.^[18][15][1]
2. Distrust, misgiving about someone or something.^[11][19]
3. (law, in the plural: sospechas vehementes) Strong indications of guilt.^[18]
4. (germanía, obsolete) An inn.^[9][12]

Related words

• sospechar
• sospechoso
• suspicaz
• suspicacia
• Latin suspectō

Usage notes

Common collocations are sospecha fundada, sospecha infundada and vehementes sospechas.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sospecha
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 657
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sospecha
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sospechar
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 739
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sospechar
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 161
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sospecha
11. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. sospecha
12. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 199
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 724
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 991
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sospecha
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 418
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sospecha
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sospecha
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sospecha