- suspension
- 1421, "temporary halting or deprivation," from L. suspensionem (nom. suspensio) "the act or state of hanging up, a vaulting," from pp. stem of suspendere "to hang" (see suspend).
"A semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith." [Coleridge, "Biographia Literaria," 1817]
Meaning "action of hanging by a support from above" is attested from 1546. Suspension bridge first recorded 1821.