Forms: 4–5 suggestyun, -tione, -tioun, soggestioun, 4–6 suggestyon, (4, Sc. 6 sugestioun, 5 sugiestion, -tyoun, 6 suggesteon), 4– suggestion. See also SUBJESTION (cf. OF. subjestion). [a. AF., OF. suggestioun (mod. F. suggestion), = Pr. suggestio, It. suggestione, Sp. sugestion, Pg. suggestão, ad. L. suggestio, -ōnem, n. of action f. suggerĕre to SUGGEST.]
† 1. Prompting or incitement to evil; an instance of this, a temptation of the evil one. Obs.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxiv. 2. Þof þai waite nyght and daye with ill suggestions to till me til syn.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 331. Deedly synne hath first suggestion of the feend.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxvi. 303 (Harl. MS.). Tribulacion of þe wordle, temptacion of flesh, and sugiestion of þe devill.
c. 1460. Wisdom, 497, in Macro Plays, 52. Mynde. To þis suggestyon a-gre we. Wndyrstondynge. Delyght þer-In, I haue truly. Wyll. And I consent þer-to frelye.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 124 b. As longe as the mynde is not moued by ye false suggestyon … there is the lesse ieopardy: as wele whan he fayneth ony thynge by suggestyon that is good, or [etc.].
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 127. Be thrie degreis men principallie cummis to sinne, be suggestion, delectation, and consent.
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 292. Then arme thy constant and thy nobler parts Against these giddy loose suggestions.
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 227. That which is spoken, and done by Satanicall Suggestion.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 129. The first sort by thir own suggestion fell, Self-tempted, self-deprav’d.
† b. In extended sense: A prompting from within, (hence) intention. Obs.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 69. Bidders and Beggers Beoþ not in þe Bulle, Bote þe suggestion be soþ þat schapeþ hem to Begge.
c. 1550. Bale, K. Johan (Manly), 963. His suggesteon was to subdew the Yrysh men.
2. The action of prompting one to a particular action or course of action; the putting into the mind of an idea, an object of thought, a plan, or the like; an instance of this, an idea or thought suggested, a proposal.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xl. 14. That thow make suggestioun to Pharao, that he lede me out of this prisoun.
c. 1400. Love, Bonavent. Mirr., xlvii. At this suggestioun of John, oure lady … wolde no lenger letten his buryinge.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 400. Brefis were directed to hym at the suggestion of the abbesse of Godestowe.
1522. Skelton, Why not to Court, 1200. Some men myght aske a question, By whose suggestyon I toke on hand this warke, Thus boldly for to barke?
1590. Swinburne, Test., 264. The later testament doth not take away the former, the later being made at the interrogation or suggestion of some other person.
1611. Bible, 2 Macc. vi. 8. There went out a decree…, by the suggestion of Ptolomee, against the Iewes.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. v. 18. We are unready to put in execution the suggestions or dictates of reason.
1671. Milton, Samson, 599. Believe not these suggestions which proceed From anguish of the mind.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., A Testament is said to be made by Suggestion, when ’tis made by Surprize, and contrary to the Intention of the Testator.
1736. Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, II. 74. America was not heard of, nor so much as a suggestion in the minds of men that any part of the world lay that way.
1748. Melmoth, Fitzosborne Lett., lvi. (1749), II. 78. The wild suggestions of an heated imagination.
1838. G. P. R. James, Robber, ii. Did you not solemnly swear to her to follow my suggestions?
1842. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), III. ix. 169. At the suggestion of friends a subscription was raised.
1876. J. Parker, Paracl., II. xviii. 342. Any suggestion to the effect that theology is hostile to science is a lie.
1886. G. Allen, Darwin, ii. 25. Erasmus Darwin gave us brilliant suggestions rather than cumulative proof.
† b. A foreboding, apprehension. Obs. rare.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. xi. 257. These gloomy suggestions were soon happily ended.
c. Hypnotism. The insinuation of a belief or impulse into the mind of a subject by words, gestures, or the like; the impulse or idea thus suggested.
1887. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 12 March, 595/2. At a recent meeting of the Biological Society, MM. Fontan and Segard communicated several cases of cure by suggestion.
1892. Ernest Hart, in 19th Cent., Jan., 25. The proceedings by which Sarchas, the faithful companion of Apollonius, gave sight to the blind, movement to the paralysed, hearing to the deaf, and reason to the insane were essentially methods of what we should now call ‘suggestion.’
1903. F. W. H. Myers, Human Pers., I. p. xxxv. I define suggestion as ‘successful appeal to the subliminal self.’
† 3. The act of making a false or suborned statement or supplying underhand information; an instance of this, a false representation or charge. Often false suggestion (= AF. fause suggestioun, Britton). Obs.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxi. (Eugenia), 408. Þe wikit wyf of putefere,… gert hyme be tane falsely & haldine lang in-to preson thru hyr wikit suggestione.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 216. Þis appropringe is geten bi fals suggestion maad to Anticrist.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monk’s T., 427. Roger, which þat Bisshope was of Pize, Hadde on hym maad a fals suggestion.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 153. Þe Samaritans … lette hire work with sugestiouns and wiþ ȝiftes.
1460. Capgrave, Chron. (Rolls), 289. Fals suggestiones, by whech many men were disherid of her londis.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 194 b. This Cardinall [sc. Wolsey] … by craftye suggestion gatte into his handes innumerable treasure.
1552. Edw. VI., Jrnl. (Roxb. Club), II. 423. Whalley … confessed … how in his accoumptes he had made many false suggestions.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 235. Thou diddest vse all the suggestions that euer thou couldest inuent … to make them take weapon in hande againste mee.
1592. Kyd, Sp. Trag., III. i. 46. So am I free from this suggestion [of murder]. Ibid., 84. The hopeles life which thou … sought By thy suggestions to have massacred.
[1620. J. Wilkinson, Coroners & Sherifes, 2. If any of these causes be untrue, and the Coroner therby discharged of his office by a false suggestion.]
4. Law. An information not upon oath.
Suggestion upon record: an information drawn in writing showing cause for a prohibition to a suit.
1485. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 292/2. The said Thomas … was committed to the Tower … by the comaundement of Edward the IIIIth … uppon a Suggestion and Ympeachment made to hym, that [etc.].
1548. Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI., c. 13 § 14. Under the Copie of the saide lybell shalbe written the Suggestyon wherefore the partie soe demaundeth the saide Prohibicion.
1651. trans. Kitchin’s Courts Leet (1653), 297. Where a Grant of the King is not only of his meere motion, but also of suggestion, there, if any part of the suggestion bee not true, the whole Grant is voyd.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 113. The party … applies to the superior court, setting forth in a suggestion upon record the nature and cause of his complaint. Ibid. (1769), IV. xxiii. 305. This mode of prosecution, by information (or suggestion) filed on record by the king’s attorney general.
1835. Tomlins’ Law-Dict., s.v., There are suggestions in replevin for a returno habendo, which, it is said, are not traversable.
1852. Act 15 & 16 Vict., c. 76 § 191. In case the Right of the deceased Claimant shall survive to another Claimant, a Suggestion may be made of the Death, which Suggestion shall not be traversable.
5. The process by which an idea brings to the mind another idea by association or natural connection.
For the specific uses in the philosophical terminology of Reid and T. Brown, see quots. 1764, a. 1820, 1875.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. 52 b. The other part of Invention, which I terme Svggestion, doth assigne and direct vs to certaine Markes or Places, which may excite our Minde to returne and produce such Knowledge, as it hath formerly collected.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, ii. § 7. I beg leave to make use of the word suggestion, because I know not one more proper, to express a power of the mind … to which we owe many of our simple notions which are neither impressions nor ideas, as well as many original principles of belief.
a. 1820. T. Brown, Philos. Human Mind (1820), II. xxxiii. 190. There is … in the mind, a capacity of association; or as … I would rather term it,—the capacity of Simple Suggestion,—by which feelings, formerly existing, are revived,… as there is also a capacity of feeling resemblance,… or relation in general,… which mental capacity, in distinction from the former, I would term the capacity of Relative Suggestion.
1868. Lowell, Among my Bks., Shaks. once more, Ser. I. (1870), 177. It is by suggestion, not cumulation, that profound impressions are made upon the imagination.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 732/1. [Brown] preferred the word Suggestion to Association, which seemed to him to imply some prior connecting process, whereof there was no evidence in many of the most important cases of suggestion.
6. An indication of the presence or existence (of something); a hint, an inkling.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. v. A faint suggestion of weariness struggling with habitual patience.
1879. Rood, Mod. Chrom., v. 60. Pure grey or bluish-grey without any suggestion of green.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, iv. 36. His presence had no suggestion of strength.
¶ 7. Misused for SUBJECTION (sense 1 b). For the reverse see SUBJECTION ¶ 12.
a. 1400. Ipomedon (Kölbing), 323. All the lordes aboute him were vndre his suggestion and did him homage.
8. attrib.: suggestion-book, box, a book, box in which are put written suggestions containing proposals for the alteration or improvement of the administration of an establishment, or the like.
1882. Suggestion Book (Bodleian Library).
1907. Daily Chron., 20 July, 6/7. A ‘suggestion box,’ into which any worker may drop a suggestion for the increased comfort of the staff.
