The word “soupçon,” meaning “a tiny amount of something,” has a suspicious origin — literally. It comes from the Old French word “sospeçon,” which comes from the Latin verb “suspicere,” meaning “to suspect.” Today, the most common usage of “soupçon” is to refer to a scant amount of an ingredient, or a smidgeon of a product, but when English speakers adopted the word from the French in the 18th century, the suspicious nature of the word was more prevalent. It was used to describe when someone had an inkling about something, or a touch of suspicion. For example, “I have a soupçon that my friends are planning something for my birthday.”