suspicios

Forms

suspicios m or n (feminine singular suspicioasă, masculine plural suspicioși, feminine/neuter plural suspicioase)^[1] An older variant suspițios appears in George Barițiu, in the sense “suspect”: „foarte suspițioasă atâta libertate” “so much freedom [seemed] very suspicious”.^[2][3] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 spells it suspiciosŭ.^[4]

Etymology

DEX, MDA2 and the DLR give two sources for this learned word: it is borrowed from Latin suspīciōsus (“full of mistrust”), and at the same time borrowed from French suspicieux.^[5][3][2][1] Marcu's dictionary of neologisms puts the French word first.^[6] The Latin adjective is formed from suspīciō (“suspicion, mistrust”) with the suffix -ōsus, and the French one is itself a learned loan from it.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 lists suspiciosŭ as “inclined to suspect, quick to suspect”, glossed with French ombrageux and soupçonneux.^[4] The first text MDA2 and the DLR cite is George Barițiu's Părți alese din istoria Transilvaniei (1889–1890), where the form suspițios means “suspect”, said of a thing.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “suspect, arousing suspicion” of Barițiu's text did not last, and the dictionaries mark it as old and rare.^[3][2] The word settled in the bookish sense “mistrustful”, said of people and of their minds.^[2][5] Dimitrescu notes that the sense “suspect” has come back in recent use, taken again, this time from English: phrases such as ceva suspicios “something suspicious” blur the line between suspicios (the one who suspects) and suspect (what arouses suspicion).^[8]

Timeline

• 1870 – suspiciosŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[4]
• 1875 – suspiciosu in Antonescu's dictionary, glossed with French soupçonneux.^[9]
• 1889–1890 – suspițios “suspect” in Barițiu's history of Transylvania.^[3][2]
• 1939 – Scriban marks the word as rare.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. suspicious, mistrustful: inclined to suspect others, full of suspicion.^[5][11][1]
2. (old, rare; now again in colloquial use) Arousing suspicion, suspect.^[3][8]

Related words

• suspiciune
• suspect
• bănuitor

Usage notes

The word is pronounced with -ci- and -os in separate syllables.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. suspicios
3. ^ 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, 1077
4. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 588
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1081
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. suspicios
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. suspiciós
9. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 305
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1272
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. suspicios