Where does “suspect” come from?
suspect (Middle French) comes from Old French suspect, from Latin suspectus, from Latin suspiciō, from Latin suspicere, from Latin specere, from Latin specio, from Proto-Italic spekjō, from Proto-Indo-European spéḱyeti — to see, to look, to observe.
Ancestry of “suspect”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old French | suspect | — |
| 2 | Latin | suspectus | mistrusted, suspected, having been suspected;... |
| 3 | Latin | suspiciō | — |
| 4 | Latin | suspicere | second-person singular present active subjunctive... |
| 5 | Latin | specere | present active infinitive of speciō;... |
| 6 | Latin | specio | I observe, watch, look at |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | spekjō | to observe, to see |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | spéḱyeti | to be looking at, to keep looking at |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | speḱ- | to see, to look, to observe |