suspeito

Forms

suspeito (feminine suspeita, masculine plural suspeitos, feminine plural suspeitas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote sospeyto, suspeyto and subspeito, beside the Latin-looking suspecto.^[2][3] Houaiss's first record of the spelling suspeito is from about 1543, and Cunha's from the 16th century.^[4][3] Bluteau still entered suspeito as a variant of suspecto.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin suspectus (“suspected, mistrusted”), the past participle of suspiciō (“to look up at; to suspect”).^[4][6][7][3] The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and speciō (“to look at”).^[1] In the oldest texts the word is written Old Galician-Portuguese sospeyto and Old Galician-Portuguese suspeyto, and also Old Galician-Portuguese suspecto, which Cunha dates to the 13th century.^[2][3]

The same Latin word is Italian sospetto and Old Spanish sospecho, which the REW records as nouns meaning “suspicion”.^[8] Nascentes also compares French suspect.^[9] The verb suspeitar comes from Latin suspectō (“to look up at; to suspect”), and Silva Bastos treated the adjective as its irregular participle.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adjective to the 13th century.^[4] The early records collected by Lorenzo are legal: the Galician-Portuguese Fuero Real speaks of a judge who is suspecto or sospeyto to a party, that is, suspected of partiality, and a charter of 1320 has nen seiam sospeytos “nor let them be suspect”.^[2] In the Crónica Troiana the word also has the active sense “mistrustful”, as Medieval Latin suspectus could.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau quotes the Ordenações on a debtor suspected of flight and on a judge who does not become suspect because a party has insulted him.^[5] Morais defines the word as said of one who is suspected or mistrusted, of doubtful faith or probity, and explains dar-se o juiz por suspeito, a judge declaring that he has reasons not to try a case, such as kinship or friendship with a party.^[14]

The modern dictionaries add things of doubtful truth or origin, goods supposed to be forged or illegal, and an illness that causes concern.^[4][15][16] As a noun it names the person suspected of a crime.^[4][17][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record of the adjective.^[4]
• 1320 – nen seiam sospeytos in a Galician charter.^[2]
• 1387 – temeroso et subspeito in a Galician document.^[2]
• c. 1431–1446 – sospeito in the Vida do honrado Infante Josafat.^[18]
• c. 1543 – first record of the spelling suspeito.^[4]
• 1607 – a private letter still writes sospeito.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau refers suspeito to suspecto.^[5]
• 1813 – Morais explains dar-se o juiz por suspeito.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. suspicious, arousing mistrust: um carro suspeito à porta.^[4][20][1]
2. Of doubtful truth, existence, accuracy or legitimacy.^[4][20]
3. (law) Liable to be partial, open to a challenge of bias, as a judge or a witness.^[4][14]
4. Thought to be forged or illegal: mercadoria de origem suspeita.^[4][17]
5. Of an illness, causing concern; of uncertain diagnosis.^[20][16]

Noun

1. A suspect, a person thought to be the author of a crime or a wrong.^[4][17][1]

Related words

• suspeitar
• suspeita
• suspeição
• Latin suspectus

Usage notes

Ser suspeito para falar is said of someone who cannot judge a matter impartially, and dar alguém por suspeito means to declare that someone may not give an opinion or vote because of circumstances that could affect their impartiality.^[4][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. suspecto
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. suspeito
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. suspeito
5. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suspeito
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. suspectus
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. suspectus
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. suspectus
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 481
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. suspeitar
11. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. suspeito
12. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. sospeyto
13. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. suspectus
14. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 743
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. suspeito
16. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8752
17. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. suspeito
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sospeito
19. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. suspeito
20. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. suspeito