soupçonner

Forms

soupçonner^[1] Old French souspecener, souspechonner and souspeçonner, Middle French soupeçonner; the modern spelling is recorded in 1564.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French soupçon + -er.^[4][5][1] soupçon, Old French sospeçon, is from Latin suspectiō, an imperial Latin noun remade on the supine of suspiciō (“to look up at, to suspect”).^[3][6][4] Littré compares Old Occitan sospeisonar.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, souspecener in the fabliau Auberee about 1200, means “to conceive suspicions about someone”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

By about 1225 it also meant “to doubt something”.^[3][2] In the 13th century it widened to imagining a blameworthy act behind something unpleasant and to guessing at the existence of something from signs, first with a clause (soupçonner que, about 1265, Brunetto Latini) and then with a direct object (late 16th century).^[3][4][2] The pronominal se soupçonner de “to have an inkling of” (about 1360) and the intransitive “to be uneasy” (15th century) are no longer used.^[3]

A construction with de naming what someone is suspected of appears in Molière (1669),^[3][2] and the use for a suspect in a police inquiry is found in Maupassant.^[2] From the verb came soupçonnable (13th century as soupeçonables, 1611 in its modern form) and, in 1840, insoupçonné and insoupçonnable, the latter then noted as a new word.^[4][6]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Souspecener appears in Auberee.^[4]
• c. 1225 – Souspechonner in the Vie de saint Jean l'Évangéliste.^[2][5]
• c. 1265 – Brunetto Latini uses souspeçonner que.^[4][5]
• c. 1380 – The spelling soupeçonner is recorded.^[2]
• 1564 – Thierry records soupçonner.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records soupçonnable.^[4]
• 1669 – Molière uses soupçonner de.^[2][3]
• 1840 – Insoupçonné and insoupçonnable appear.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To suspect someone, to believe them guilty of a fault or crime: soupçonner quelqu'un de vol; also to doubt something: soupçonner la sincérité d'un ami.^[8][4][7]
2. To surmise, to have an inkling of something from certain signs: Je ne soupçonnais pas son talent.^[8][4][7]
3. se soupçonner: to suspect oneself.^[7]

Word family

• soupçonnable
• insoupçonné
• insoupçonnable

Related words

• soupçon
• soupçonneux
• suspicion
• Latin suspectiō

Usage notes

The proverbial la femme de César ne doit pas même être soupçonnée is said of someone who must avoid anything that could draw suspicion.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert