Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “suspicious” come from?

Suspicious comes from Old French sospecious, derived from Latin suspiciosus, meaning inclined to suspect or mistrust.

suspicious (English): Arousing suspicion; Distrustful or tending to...

Definitions

  1. Arousing suspicion; Distrustful or tending to...

Ancestry of “suspicious”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchsospecious—
2Latinsuspiciosussuspicious
3Latinsuspiciō—
4Latinsuspiceresecond-person singular present active subjunctive...
5Latinspecerepresent active infinitive of speciō;...
6LatinspecioI observe, watch, look at
7Proto-Italicspekjōto observe, to see
8Proto-Indo-Europeanspéḱyetito be looking at, to keep looking at
9Proto-Indo-Europeanspeḱ-to see, to look, to observe

Words derived from “suspicious”

  • suspiciously
  • unsuspicious
  • cesspool
  • suspiciousness
  • suss
  • unsuspiciously
  • unsuspiciousness
  • oversuspicious
  • nonsuspicious
  • non-suspicious
  • sesspool
Every word from Proto-Indo-European speḱ- →