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Origin and history of soupcon

soupcon(n.)

"a slight trace or suggestion," 1766 (Walpole), from French soupçon "a suspicion," from Old French sospeçon "suspicion, worry, anxiety" (12c.), from Late Latin suspectionem (see suspicion).

also from 1766

Entries linking to soupcon

suspicion(n.)

c. 1300, suspecioun, "act of suspecting; unverified conjecture of wrongdoing; mistrust, distrust with but slight proof; feeling or passion excited by signs of danger," from Anglo-French suspecioun, corresponding to Old French suspicion, sospeçon "mistrust, suspicion" (Modern French soupçon) and directly from Late Latin suspectionem (nominative suspectio) "mistrust, suspicion, fear, awe," noun of state from past-participle stem of Latin suspicere "look up at" (see suspect (adj.)).

The spelling in English was influenced 14c. by learned Old French forms closer to Latin suspicionem (compare soupcon).

It is attested by late 14c. as "a suspicious notion," by c. 1400 as "imagination of something as possible or likely." As a verb meaning "to suspect," it figures in literary representations of U.S. Western (Kentucky) slang from 1830s. Middle English and early Modern English also had suspection.

"Suspicion" words in other Indo-European languages also tend to be words for "think" or "look" with prefixes meaning "under, behind;" such as Greek hypopsia (from hypo "under" + opsis "sight"), hyponoia (noein "to think"); Lettish aizduomas (aiz "behind" + duomat "think"); Russian podozrenie (Slavic podu "under," Old Church Slavonic zireti "see, look"); Dutch achterdocht (achter "behind" + denken "to think").

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