Etymologically
Log in

suspicor

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 22:44. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsʊs.pɪ.kɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsus.pi.kor][1]

Forms

suspicor (present infinitive suspicārī or suspicārier, perfect active suspicātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Plautus also has an active suspicō.[2] He uses the infinitive suspicārier too.[3]

Etymology

It belongs with the verb suspiciō (“to look up at”), from sub- (“under, from below”) and speciō (“to look”); de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the simple verb.[4][3] Wiktionary suggests it was formed from an intermediate ⟨*suspex⟩ with the deponent ending, or modelled on auspicor (“to take the auspices”); compare dēspicor and cōnspicor.[1] De Vaan derives ⟨speciō⟩ from Proto-Italic *spekje/o-, Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-ie/o- (“to look”), cognate with Sanskrit पश्यति (páśyati, “sees”) and Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, “to look at”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Menaechmi: tristem virum videō. id est quod suspicābar, “I see a gloomy husband; that is what I suspected”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus it is to suspect something wrong (Aulularia: everyone would suspect him of having gold at home), and to guess or surmise.[2] Classical prose uses it chiefly for forming an idea, inferring or conjecturing, with an accusative and infinitive (Cicero gathers from his brother's letters that he is already in Britain) or an indirect question.[2][3] From Horace and Apuleius it is also to suspect a person of guilt, to mistrust.[2]

Church Latin adds “to dread” and “to look at enviously”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: id est quod suspicābar.[2][6]
  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a listener left to guess.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of inferring from letters.[2][6]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of a woman suspecting a girl as a rival.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To form an idea of, guess, surmise, conjecture.[2][1]
  2. To suspect (something wrong).[2][1]
  3. To suspect (a person) of guilt; to mistrust.[2]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To dread; to look at enviously.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de