suspiciune

Forms

suspiciune f (plural suspiciuni)^[1] Older texts use other forms: Dimitrie Țichindeal warns that praise without cause makes us fall „în suspiție, adecă într-o uriciune sau clevete” “into suspicion, that is, into odium or slander”.^[2] Aristia's Plutarch of 1857 has the neuter suspiciu: „Acest suspiciu fu și remediat de dânșii numaidecât” “this suspicion was at once removed by them”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French suspicion, with Latin suspīciō (“suspicion, mistrust”) as a second model: DEX, MDA2 and the DLR give both.^[4][3][2] Wiktionary names only the French word and Scriban only the Latin one, while the DN also compares Italian suspicione.^[1][5][6]

The French word was remade in 1370 from the older forms suspecioun and suspiciun after the Latin.^[7] The Latin noun is formed with the suffix -iō on the verb of the same spelling, “to look up at; to suspect”, which is made of sub- (“under”) and speciō (“to look at”).^[1][8] Wiktionary notes that the long /iː/ of the noun is irregular, perhaps taken over from opīniō, and that the Romance forms go back to a variant with a short vowel;^[1] French soupçon is the inherited French descendant.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DLR and MDA2 open the record with Dimitrie Țichindeal, whose form suspiție means “suspicion, ill repute”.^[2][3] Aristia's Plutarch of 1857 has the neuter suspiciu.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense of mistrust about someone's honesty or the lawfulness of their acts.^[4][3] The 19th-century dictionaries list it with French glosses: Pontbriant gives “suspicion, doubt”, and Costinescu refers it to suspiciu and suspectare.^[10][11] Scriban marks it as a legal term and records suspiciune legală, the lawful suspicion that lets a case be sent to a court in another town.^[5] In the 20th century it became a word of general prose, used by Rebreanu, Lovinescu and Călinescu.^[2]

Timeline

• 1857 – the neuter suspiciu in Aristia's translation of Plutarch.^[2]
• 1862 – suspiciune in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[10]
• 1870 – listed by Costinescu.^[11]
• 1875 – listed by Antonescu with French suspicion.^[12]
• 1939 – Scriban records the legal phrase suspiciune legală.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. suspicion, mistrust: lack of trust in someone, doubt about the correctness or lawfulness of their acts or the honesty of their intentions; synonym of bănuială and neîncredere: Privirea lui i-a trezit suspiciuni.^[4][3][1]
2. An attitude that shows distrust of a thing's authenticity or a person's honesty: a avea suspiciuni “to have suspicions”.^[13]

Related words

• suspect
• bănuială
• Latin suspicio

Usage notes

The group ⟨ciu⟩ is pronounced in two syllables, -ci-u-.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. suspiciune
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 d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1081
5. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1272
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. suspiciune
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 720
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 588
12. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 305
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. suspiciune