suspecta

Forms

suspecta (third-person singular present suspectează, past participle suspectat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French suspecter.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French verb is from Latin suspectō (“to suspect, mistrust”).^[1] Negulici, who recorded it in 1848 as ⟨suspectare⟩, set it beside suspicor.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 has suspectare, explained as to suppose or suspect someone of a deed.^[6] MDA2 and the DLR quote it first from Aristia's translation of Plutarch (1857): „Fu suspectat senatul” “The senate was suspected”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Pontbriant (1862) and Antonescu (1875) already gloss it with French soupçonner.^[7][8] The verb kept the sense of suspecting a person or a group of wrongdoing, and was extended to doubting things, such as someone's intentions or behaviour.^[2][4][9]

Timeline

• 1848 – suspectare in Negulici's dictionary.^[6]
• 1857 – suspectat in Aristia's Plutarch.^[2][4]
• 1862 – suspecta in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To suspect: to believe someone guilty of something bad; compare bănui.^[3][2]
2. To doubt, to mistrust something: Suspecta motivele prietenului său.^[2][3]

Related words

• suspect
• suspiciona
• suspiciune

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1076
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1081
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. suspecta
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. suspecta
6. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. suspectare
7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich
8. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați)
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 324