Skepsis
/ˈskɛp.sɪs/noun
Critical examination or doubt; a skeptical attitude.
Did you know?The word comes from Greek *sképsis*, meaning “a looking, examination, inquiry,” from *skeptesthai* “to look carefully,” and it later gave English *skeptic* and *skepticism*—so doubt was originally a disciplined act of seeing.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*spek-
“to observe, look, watch”
Ancient Greek
Greek
σκέπτομαι (sképtomai)
“I look at, examine, consider”
Ancient Greek
Greek
σκέψις (sképsis)
“a looking, examination, inquiry”
Late Latin
Latin
scepticus / scepticus
“skeptical; belonging to the skeptical school”
14th–16th Century
English
sceptic / skeptic
“a doubter or philosophical inquirer”
Modern English
English
skepticism
“an attitude of doubt or critical inquiry”
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