- suspect (adj.)
- 1340, from O.Fr. suspect "suspicious," from L. suspectus "suspected, suspicious," pp. of suspicere "look up at, mistrust, suspect," from sub "up to" + specere "to look at" (see scope (1)). The notion is of "look at secretly," hence, "look at distrustfully." The verb is attested from 1483; the noun meaning "a suspected person" is first recorded 1591.