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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Suspect / suspicious

"Someone has reported a suspicious bag."

We often hear this on the news.

A few experts say that "suspicious" is incorrect since a bag cannot be suspicious of anyone or anything.

These experts say that precise English requires "suspect bag."

What is your view?

Thank you.
  

Top answer

This is what my Longman dictionary offers: suspect: [only before noun] likely to contain a bomb or something illegal or dangerous: Police were called in to check out a suspect van.

— Nikoo

  • This is what my Longman dictionary offers: suspect: [only before noun] likely to contain a bomb or something illegal or dangerous: Police were called in to check out a suspect van.
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5 Answers
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This is what my Longman dictionary offers:
suspect:
[only before noun] likely to contain a bomb or something illegal or dangerous:
Police were called in to check out a suspect van.
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Thank you for the confirmation, Nikoo.
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Those experts are wrong. A word means exactly and only what people agree it means. We all know what a suspicious bag is. Anyway, "suspect" is a little different. We can say someone's motives are suspect, but not that they are suspicious. His actions would be that. A suspect bag might be a knock-off. A suspicious bag might be a bomb.

If "suspicious bag" is wrong, it was wrong when Webster
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James M"Someone has reported a suspicious bag."
Hi,
I am not going to ask you the origins of these experts who told you that it is incorrect to say " a suspicious bag/ package/ object/ parcel or even a box". That truth is, it is very correct main stream English.


James MThese experts say that
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