Origin and history of suggestion

mid-14c., suggestioun, "action of prompting or urging," originally especially "a prompting to evil," from Anglo-French and Old French suggestioun "hint; temptation," from Latin suggestionem (nominative suggestio) "an addition, intimation, suggestion," noun of action from suggestus, past participle of suggerere "bring up, bring under, lay beneath; furnish, afford, supply; prompt," from sub "under; up from below" (see sub-) + gerere "bring, carry" (see gest).

The sense evolution in Latin is from "heap up, build" to "bring forward an idea." In English, "act of placing before the mind problematically" is by late 14c.; also "proposal, statement, declaration." It was extended by c. 1600 to the action of an idea in bringing another idea to mind by association or natural connection. The older English notion of "evil prompting" remains in the euphemistic use of suggestive.

The hypnotism sense, "insinuation of a belief or impulse into the mind of the subject," is from 1887.