soupçon

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See also: soupcon

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French soupçon. Doublet of suspection.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /suːpˈsɒn/, /suːpˈsɒ̃/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɒn

Noun[edit]

soupçon (plural soupçons)

  1. A very small amount; a hint; a trace, slight idea; an inkling.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum
    Add a soupçon of red pepper.
    coffee with a soupçon of cognac
    No one is so depraved that a soupçon of goodness cannot be found in them.
    • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. [], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, [], published 1842, →OCLC, page 21:
      Henrietta, her niece, looked much prettier than she really was; she had good dark eyes, to which a soupçon of rouge, put on with such skill that few suspected it, gave all possible brightness.
    • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers. [], copyright edition, volume II, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1859, →OCLC, page 259:
      Eleanor returned the pressure of the other's hand with an infinitesimal soupçon of a squeeze.
    • 1906, Baroness Orczy, chapter VI, in I Will Repay[1], London: Greening & Co, page 88:
      [] and as he spoke, there was just a soupçon of foreign accent in the pronunciation of the French vowels, a certain drawl of o's and a's, that would have betrayed the Britisher to an observant ear.
    • 1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book 1, page 92:
      Anthony was playing with an ancient tennis-ball, and he bounced it carefully on the floor several times before he answered with a soupçon of acidity:
      “You're a little idiot, Geraldine.”
    • 2023 December 8, Jennifer Senior, “What Will Happen to the American Psyche If Trump Is Reelected?”, in The Atlantic[2]:
      There were times, during the first two years of the Biden presidency, when I came close to forgetting about it all: the taunts and the provocations; the incitements and the resentments; the disorchestrated reasoning; the verbal incontinence; the press conferences fueled by megalomania, vengeance, and a soupçon of hydroxychloroquine.
  2. (dated) A suspicion; a suggestion.

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the Old French sospeçon, inherited from the Latin suspectiōnem. Not a doublet of suspicion.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

soupçon m (plural soupçons)

  1. suspicion; mistrust
  2. a hint, a tad, a little bit (of something)
    Synonym: zeste
    ajoute un soupçon de cannelle

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • English: soupçon

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]