Superstitious

How to spell superstitious

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce superstitious

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does superstitious mean?

1. adjectiveInclined to believe in luck, omens, or magic rather than reason or evidence.

Superstitious in a sentence

• My superstitious neighbour refuses to walk under a ladder.

• She is too superstitious to start any project on a Friday the thirteenth.

Where does superstitious come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin superstitiosus, meaning 'full of unreasoning fear of the gods', which was built on the noun superstitio. That noun combined super, meaning 'over' or 'above', with a form of the verb stare, meaning 'to stand', so it literally suggested 'a standing over' something, perhaps the image of standing over an object in awe or dread. In classical Rome superstitio came to mean an excessive, irrational religious observance, in contrast to the proper devotion of religio. English took the adjective in through Old French supersticious in the 1300s and 1400s, settling into the modern meaning of believing in omens, luck, and magic rather than reason. The same stare root stands behind a surprising crowd of everyday words such as 'stable', 'statue', and 'circumstance'. For spelling, the tricky part is the ending: the sound is 'shus' but it is written -tious, and the unstressed middle vowels offer little help.

How the word is built

• super- (over, above)
• -stit- (from stare: to stand)
• -ious (adjective suffix); from Latin superstitio, literally 'a standing over'