soupçon means A very small amount; a hint; a trace, slight idea; an inkling. It carries an Arena rating of 1650, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, soupçon ranks #1,187 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,332 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #2,075 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,109 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
soupçon is pronounced /suːpˈsɒn/.
Why “soupçon” is a great word
A very small amount or a slight trace, especially of a quality, flavor, or suspicion. From the French soupçon ('suspicion, hint'), from Old French sospeçon, from Late Latin suspectiōnem, accusative of suspectiō ('suspicion'), from Latin suspicere ('to look up at, mistrust'); first attested in English in 1766 (Horace Walpole). Unlike an 'abundance,' which is profuse and obvious, or a 'certainty,' which is resolute and assured, a soupçon is the ghost of a quantity. It is the single, almost imagined note of cardamom in a complex curry, the faint cool draft betraying a cracked window, or the fleeting shadow of impropriety that passes across a polite face—the profound significance of what is just barely there, where meaning balances on a breath.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French soupçon. Doublet of suspection.
noun
- A very small amount; a hint; a trace, slight idea; an inkling.e.g.“Add a soupçon of red pepper.”
- A suspicion; a suggestion.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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