English

Alternative forms

• dubytacion [15th century]
• dubitacion, dubitatioun [16th century]

Noun

dubitation ‎(usually uncountable, plural dubitations)

1. (uncountable) The process of doubting or the state of being in doubt; hesitation, uncertainty.
   • circa 1450, Coventry Mystery Plays, page 67 (Shakespeare Society; published 1841–53):

     I […] Alle that my progenitouris hath […] seyn, ffeythfully beleve withowtyn alle dubytacion.

   • 1570, George Buchanan, Chamæleon, page 51:

     The Chamæleon […] eftir sum dubitatioun come to Striueling.

   • 1867, George MacDonald, Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, chapter 32:

     All my dubitation and distress were gone, for I had something to do, although what I could not yet tell.

2. (countable, obsolete) A thing to be doubted; a matter that calls for doubt.
   • 1545, George Joye, The Exposicion of Daniel the Prophete, chapter 12:

     The trewe inuocacion of God thorow Cryst, thei haue turned it into a dowtfull dubitacion.

3. (countable) A pang or expression of doubt.
   • 1683, John Pordage (author) and Edward Hooker (editor), Theologica Mystica, or The Mystic Divinitie of the Æternal Invisibles, page 99:

     Altercations, disputations and dubitations of, in and about Mystic Theologie.

   • 1841, Thomas Carlyle, Heroes and Hero Worship, chapter 4:

     [T]he deep earnest soul of the man had fallen into all manner of black scruples, dubitations; he believed himself likely to die soon, and far worse than die.

   • 1864, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Wylder’s Hand, chapter 43:

     These terrors and dubitations are infectious.

Synonyms

• (state of being in doubt): doubtfulness

Related terms

Translations

References

• “dubitation” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)

French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin dubitātiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dybitasjɔ̃/

Noun

dubitation f ‎(plural dubitations)

1. (literary) dubitation: the action of putting in doubt, or a state of doubt
2. (rhetoric) a figure of speech, a passage in which a writer or speaker expresses or feigns doubt, for example to forestall objections

Descendants

• English: dubitation

References

“dubitation” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin dubitātiō.

Noun

dubitation f ‎(oblique plural dubitations, nominative singular dubitation, nominative plural dubitations)

1. doubt
   • 1303, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine), page 183 of this essay:

     Decy la seconde dubitacion se le lepre est maladie de tout le corps

     From this, the second doubt over whether leprosy is a disease of all the body