sospettare

Forms

sospettare (first-person singular present sospètto, first-person singular past historic sospettài, past participle sospettàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include sospetare, suspettare and dialect sospezare, and an old past participle sospetto.^[2] Tommaseo also lists the archaic sospecciare, sospicciare and sospicare.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin suspectō (“to look up at; to suspect”), an intensive of suspiciō (“to look up at; to look at with distrust”).^[5][6][7][8] Nocentini adds that it may also be the intensive of suspicor (“to suspect”).^[6] The base verb is a compound of sub- (“under”) and speciō (“to look”), which DELI traces to an Indo-European root for looking long and fixedly;^[5][8][9] Devoto notes the regular change of its vowel to ⟨i⟩ in an open inner syllable.^[5][8][9] The Latin verb first meant “to look up from below”, then “to look at with suspicion”.^[5][4]

DEI calls it panromance: Sardinian suspettare, Occitan sospechar, Catalan sospitar, Spanish sospechar and Portuguese suspeitar.^[10][11][6] In French, suspecter is learned, and Old French continued the classical Latin suspicārī instead.^[6][10] The old Italian variant “sospecciare” was taken from the Occitan verb.^[6] The Romance verb also gave nouns: Spanish sospecha and Portuguese suspeita.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Nocentini date the verb to the 13th century.^[7][4][6] The GDLI's earliest quotation is the Genoese form sospezao “suspected” in the Anonimo Genovese: d'aver faito un gran peccao (of having committed a great sin).^[2] DELI's first record of the sense “to believe someone guilty on the strength of clues” is Boccaccio in 1353.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the Decameron Boccaccio uses the verb both absolutely and with di: ciascuno sospettando dell'altro (each suspecting the other).^[3] Dante has the variant sospicciare in the Inferno and Purgatorio.^[3] The weaker sense “to think, imagine, suppose” appears as sospectare in Savonarola before 1460 and as sospettare in Torquato Tasso in 1573.^[5]

The noun sospetto “suspicion” is in Dante, before 1321, and sospettoso “suspicious” in Brunetto Latini, before 1294;^[5][6] sospettabile entered the dictionaries in 1873 and insospettabile is from the 16th century.^[5][6] Today the verb is used transitively for suspecting someone of a crime or suspecting a trick, and intransitively with di for distrust.^[7][4][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – The verb is first recorded.^[7][6]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses sospettoso.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the noun sospetto.^[5]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses sospettare “to believe someone guilty”.^[5]
• Before 1460 – Savonarola uses sospectare “to suppose”.^[5]
• 1573 – Torquato Tasso uses sospettare “to imagine”.^[5]
• 1873 – Sospettabile is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To suspect someone, to believe them guilty on the strength of clues: Gli inquirenti sospettano il socio di frode.^[7][4][12]
2. (transitive) To suspect that something is hidden or the case, especially something harmful: Il medico sospetta un'infezione.^[7][4][8]
3. (transitive) To imagine, suppose: Non sospettavo che fosse così timido.^[7][12][13]
4. (intransitive, with di) To suspect someone: Tutti sospettano del giardiniere.^[7][8][13]
5. (intransitive, with di) To distrust, to fear a deception: È un tipo che sospetta di chiunque.^[7][4][12]

Word family

• sospetto
• sospettoso
• sospettabile
• insospettabile
• sospettato

Related words

• specchio
• Latin suspectō
• French suspecter

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 527
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 416
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3562
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana