different between suspicion vs superstition

English

Alternative forms

• suspition (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], borrowed from Latin suspici?, suspici?nem, from suspicere, from sub- (“up to”) with specere (“to look at”). Perhaps partly through the influence of Old French sospeçon (or rather the Anglo-Norman form suspecioun).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?.?sp?.??n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

suspicion (countable and uncountable, plural suspicions)

2. The act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong.
3. The condition of being suspected.
4. Uncertainty, doubt.

   • In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.

5. A trace, or slight indication.
   • 1879, Adolphus William Ward, Chaucer

     The features are mild but expressive, with just a suspicion […] of saturnine or sarcastic humor.

6. The imagining of something without evidence.

Derived terms

• suspicious
• suspect
• sneaking suspicion

Translations

Verb

suspicion (third-person singular simple present suspicions, present participle suspicioning, simple past and past participle suspicioned)

1. (nonstandard, dialect) To suspect; to have suspicions.

   • Mulvaney continued— "Whin I was full awake the palanquin was set down in a street, I suspicioned, for I cud hear people passin' an' talkin'. But I knew well I was far from home. […]

   • 2012, B. M. Bower, Cow-Country (page 195)

     "I've been suspicioning here was where they got their information right along," the sheriff commented, and slipped the handcuffs on the landlord.

Trivia

One of three common words ending in -cion, which are coercion, scion, and suspicion.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “suspicion”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin suspici?, suspici?nem. Confer soupçon, derived from a related formation but not an actual doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sys.pi.sj??/

Noun

suspicion f (plural suspicions)

1. suspicion

Synonyms

• soupçon

English

Etymology

From Middle French superstition, from Latin superstitio.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s(j)u?.p?(?)?st?.??n/, /?s(j)u.p?(?)?st?.?n?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s(j)u.p??st?.??n/, /?s(j)u.p??st?.?n?/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

superstition (countable and uncountable, plural superstitions)

1. A belief or beliefs, not based on human reason or scientific knowledge, that events may be influenced by one's behaviour in some magical or mystical way.
2. (archaic) Excessive nicety; overscrupulousness.

Derived terms

Related terms

• superstitious
• supernatural

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin superstiti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.p??.sti.sj??/

Noun

superstition f (plural superstitions)

1. superstition

Related terms

• superstitieux

Further reading

• “superstition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).