superstitionn.

Etymology: < (i) Middle French supersticion, superstition, superticyon (French superstition ) unorthodox or unfounded (especially non-Christian or heretical) religious belief (a1359), magical or occult practice (a1366), over-attachment to something (1549), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin superstitiōn-, superstitiō attitude of irrational religious awe or credulity, particular superstitious belief or practice, foreign or non-orthodox religious practice or doctrine, in post-classical Latin also luxury, profusion (8th cent.), superfluity (9th cent.) < superstit- , superstes standing over (see superstite adj.) + -iō -ion suffix¹. Compare Spanish superstición (late 14th cent.), Portuguese superstição (c1560), Italian superstizione (mid 14th cent.).The semantic motivation for the word is unclear. The classical Latin author Cicero suggested ( Natura Deorum 2. 28. 72) that superstitious people (superstitiōsī ) were so called because they practised excessive religious devotion in order that their children might survive (superstites essent ), but this is probably a folk etymology. A view held in late antiquity is that the use of the words superstitiō ‘superstition’ and superstitiōsus ‘superstitious’ with reference to religion derives from the idea that such practices were superfluous or redundant. Compare Isidore Origines 8. 3. 6 Superstitio dicta eo quod sit superflua aut superinstituta observatio ‘Superstition is so called because it is the name for redundant and superseded (religious) observation’. Classical Latin superstes was used with reference to a soldier standing over the prostrate body of a defeated enemy, and it has also been suggested that from this use, classical Latin superstitiō had the sense ‘superiority’, and hence developed the senses ‘prophecy’ and ‘sorcery’. Sense 1 is apparently not attested in Anglo-Norman and Old French, and quot. c1230 is taken from a passage in Ancrene Riwle which has no equivalent in either the slightly earlier Cleopatra manuscript or in the Anglo-Norman version.