suspect

Forms

suspect (feminine suspecte, masculine plural suspects, feminine plural suspectes)^[1] First suspet (1311), remade as suspect about 1360.^[2][3][4] Old French also had the more popular forms sozpis and suspiz (13th century).^[5][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin suspectus (“suspected, suspicious”),^{[5][2][6][7][1]} the past participle of suspiciō (“to look up at, to suspect”),^[5][2][3] a sense of “suspect” that is very rare in Latin, where the deponent suspicor usually carried it.^[5] The verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and the archaic speciō (“to look”), seen in many compounds;^[2][4] Rey traces it to an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *spek- (“to observe”), also seen in the Germanic verb for “to observe” that gave épier¹ and espion.^[2] The old popular forms sozpis and suspiz have a counterpart in Old Occitan sospeit (1200).^[5][2]

Littré compares Walloon suspek, Spanish suspecto, Portuguese suspeito and Italian sospetto.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record (1311, as suspet, in the cartulary of Ponthieu) applies it to a thing that arouses suspicion.^[5][2] Applied to people, “whose conduct invites suspicion”, it appears in 14th-century manuscripts such as the Enseignement d'Aristote.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has applied from the start both to a suspected person and to a thing that inspires distrust.^[2] Suspect de is used of a person who might be guilty of something (1636, Monet) or of a thing that seems to hide something blameworthy (1682).^[2][5] By extension it described a thing of doubtful value (1669) and especially food or goods without sufficient guarantees (1694);^[2] in medicine a wound suspecte was thought to be infected (1572, Paré), and the Académie recorded lieu suspect de contagion in 1694.^[5]

During the Revolution it was used of people whom the authorities feared would act against them (hommes suspects à la Nation, 1789), and as a noun from 1793, notably in the Loi des suspects voted by the Convention on 17 September 1793.^[5][2] In the 19th century it came to mean a person whom the police consider a possible culprit (about 1850), and in the 20th century it is often a noun in this sense.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – The popular forms sozpis, suspiz appear.^[5][2]
• 1266–1300 – Earliest Anglo-Norman record.^[9]
• 1311 – Suspet in the cartulary of Ponthieu.^[5][7]
• c. 1360 – The spelling suspect.^[2][3]
• 1572 – Paré uses it of a wound thought to be infected.^[5]
• 1636 – Monet records suspect de trahison.^[5]
• 1694 – The Académie records lieu suspect de contagion.^[5]
• 1789 – Hommes suspects à la Nation in the Journal de Paris.^[5]
• 1793 – First used as a noun, the year of the Loi des suspects.^[5][2]
• c. 1850 – Used of a person the police suspect.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: Suspected, or arousing suspicion.^[10][5][1]
2. Suspect de: suspected of a fault or crime.^[10][5]
3. Of a thing: arousing distrust; of doubtful value or quality.^[5][2][8]
4. Of food or goods: without sufficient guarantees of hygiene or quality.^[2]

Noun

1. A person suspected of an offence; a suspect.^[10][1]
2. (history) Under the Terror, a person held to be hostile to the Revolution: la loi des suspects.^[10][8][2]

Related words

• suspecter
• suspicion
• soupçon
• Latin suspectus

Usage notes

The pronunciation of the masculine has long been unsettled: Littré notes that Chifflet advised sounding neither the ⟨c⟩ nor the ⟨t⟩, as in effet, and the Petit Robert gives the final /kt/ as optional.^[8][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 470b
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert