speak

Pronunciation

• IPA: /spiːk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English speken,^[2][3] inherited from Old English specan, a variant of earlier sprecan (“to utter words, speak”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *sprekaną,^[2][3] the source also of Old Saxon sprecan, Dutch spreken, Old High German sprehhan and German sprechen.^[2][4] Barnhart connects it with Old Norse spraka “to crackle”, Greek spharageîsthai “to crackle”, Lithuanian sprāgěti “to crackle” and Sanskrit sphūrjati “bursts forth, crackles”, from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)reg-,^[3][5] but Boutkan finds no Indo-European etymology for the Germanic word.^[2] The -r- began to drop out in Late West Saxon and was gone by the mid-12th century, perhaps under the influence of Danish spage “to crackle”, used in slang for “to speak”.^[2] The noun speech comes from the same Old English base.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English sprecan, “to speak”, is found about 725 in Beowulf, and the form specan about 1000;^[3] Middle English speken is from probably before 1200, in Layamon.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old English sprecan was not the main verb for speaking: the Beowulf poet prefers maþelian, from mæþel “assembly”.^[2] In Old and Middle English the verb also meant “to write, state in writing”,^[2] and of things, “to be expressive”, is by the 1530s.^[2] The old past tense spake was replaced by spoke, probably under the influence of the past participle spoken.^[3] The noun speak, “talk, speech”, from about 1300, survived in Scots and dialect, and its modern use in compounds is probably all from Orwell's Newspeak.^[2] I speak as I find first appears in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English sprecan.^[3]
• c. 1000 – the form specan.^[3]
• before 1200 – Middle English speken.^[3]
• c. 1300 – noun, talk, speech.^[2]
• 1530s – of things, to be expressive.^[2]
• 1930 – speak as slang for a speakeasy.^[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To say words aloud; to talk.
2. To express thoughts or feelings in words.
3. To give a speech or lecture.
4. To be able to talk in a particular language: she speaks French.
5. To convey a meaning without words: actions speak louder than words.

Noun

1. (in compounds) A particular jargon or way of talking: computer-speak.

Word family

• speakable
• speakableness
• speakably
• bespeak
• forespeak
• misspeak
• outspeak
• speaker

Related words

• speech
• spoke
• spoken
• speakeasy
• Newspeak

Usage notes

Speak and talk are often interchangeable, but speak is the more formal and is used of addressing an audience, while talk suggests conversation.^[9][2] In Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset dialect a speak was also a long pole used in thatching.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)