suspicere

Suspicere is a Latin verb meaning to suspect, to mistrust, or to regard with suspicion. In classical usage it is transitive and takes a direct object in the accusative to denote the person or thing suspected, or to express doubt about the truth of a matter. The sense ranges from mild doubt to active incredulity, depending on context and modifiers.

The verb belongs to the third conjugation with the characteristic -io ending in the present system. Its principal parts are suspicio, suspicere, suspexi, suspectum, which provide the stems for all active tenses. The participle suspectus exists, used to mean “suspected.” Like many Latin verbs, suspicere can appear in a variety of constructions to express suspicion about a person, a motive, or a proposition.

In Latin, suspicere is the source of English derivatives such as suspect (both verb and noun) and the adjective suspicious. The semantic field centers on doubt and mistrust, and the term can appear in rhetoric and narrative to frame a reader’s or listener’s skepticism. The root is connected to other Latin look-related words such as perspicere and conspicere, which share the sense of looking or examining, aiding in understanding the evolution of related English terms.

See also: suspicion, suspicious, suspect. Etymology traces an association with looking and doubt, common to related Latin verbs that express perceiving or judging a matter as doubtful.