Where does “suss out” come from?
suss out (English) comes from English suspect, from Middle French suspect, from Old French suspect, from Latin suspectus, from Latin suspiciō, from Latin suspicere, from Latin specere, from Latin specio — to see, to look, to observe.
suss out (English): To come to understand; To manage to work out, to...
Definitions
- To come to understand; To manage to work out, to...
Ancestry of “suss out”, step by step
suss out traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English suspect
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | suspect | To imagine or suppose to be true, or to exist,... |
| 2 | Middle French | suspect | — |
| 3 | Old French | suspect | — |
| 4 | Latin | suspectus | mistrusted, suspected, having been suspected;... |
| 5 | Latin | suspiciō | to look up at or to |
| 6 | Latin | suspicere | second-person singular present active subjunctive... |
| 7 | Latin | specere | present active infinitive of speciō;... |
| 8 | Latin | specio | I observe, watch, look at |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | spekjō | to observe, to see |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | spéḱyeti | to be looking at, to keep looking at |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | speḱ- | to see, to look, to observe |