doubt [ME] In English doubt goes back to Latin dubitare ‘to hesitate, waver’, from dubium ‘doubt’ (from which dubious [M16th] also derives). The immediate sources were French forms in which the -b- had been lost, and people never pronounced the b- in doubt—it was a learned spelling to show that the writer knew the original Latin word. The first doubting Thomas to refuse to believe something without proof was the apostle Thomas. In the biblical account Thomas refused to believe that Christ was risen again until he could see and touch the wounds inflicted during the Crucifixion.