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Origin and history of speech

speech(n.)

Middle English speche, from Old English spæc "act of speaking; power of uttering articulate sounds; manner of speaking; statement, discourse, narrative, formal utterance; language." It is a variant of Old English spræc, which is from Proto-Germanic *sprek-, *spek- (source also of Danish sprog, Old Saxon spraca, Old Frisian spreke, Dutch spraak, Old High German sprahha, German Sprache "speech"). See speak (v.).

The spr- forms were extinct in English by 1200. In reference to written words by c. 1200. The meaning "address delivered to an audience" is recorded by 1580s.

And I honor the man who is willing to sink

Half his present repute for the freedom to think,

And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,

Will risk t' other half for the freedom to speak,

Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store,

Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.

[James Russell Lowell, from "A Fable for Critics," 1848]

But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas — that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That, at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. ... I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country. [Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., dissent to "Abrams v. United States," 1919]

Entries linking to speech

speak(v.)

Middle English speken, from Old English specan, variant of sprecan "to utter words articulately without singing, have or use the power of speech; make a speech; hold discourse" with others (class V strong verb; past tense spræc, past participle sprecen), from Proto-Germanic *sprekanan (source also of Old Saxon sprecan, Old Frisian spreka, Middle Dutch spreken, Old High German sprehhan, German sprechen "to speak," Old Norse spraki "rumor, report"). This has sometimes been said to represent a PIE root meaning "to strew," on notion of speech as a "scattering" of words, but Boutkan finds no Indo-European etymology for the Germanic word.

In English the -r- began to drop out in Late West Saxon and was gone by mid-12c., perhaps from influence of Danish spage "crackle," also used in a slang sense of "speak" (compare crack (v.) in slang senses having to do with speech, such as wisecrack, cracker, all it's cracked up to be). Elsewhere, rare variant forms without -r- are found in Middle Dutch (speken), Old High German (spehhan), dialectal German (spächten "speak").

Apparently not the primary word for "to speak" in Old English (the "Beowulf" author prefers maþelian, from mæþel "assembly, council," from root of metan "to meet;" compare Greek agoreuo "to speak, explain," originally "speak in the assembly," from agora "assembly").

Also in Old English and Middle English as "to write, state or declare in writing." Of things, "be expressive or significative," by 1530s.

Speak is more general in meaning than talk. Thus, a man may speak by uttering a single word, whereas to talk is to utter words consecutively ; so a man may be able to speak without being able to talk. Speak is also more formal in meaning : as, to speak before an audience ; while talk implies a conversational manner of speaking. [Century Diuctionary]

To speak out is from late 14c. as "speak loudly;" by 1690s as "speak freely and boldly." To speak up "speak on behalf" (of another, etc.) is by 1705; as "speak loudly" by 1723. To speak for "make a speech on behalf of" is by c. 1300; to speak for itself "be self-evident" is by 1779.

Speaking terms "relationship between two in which they converse with one another" is from 1786, often in the negative. As a type of megaphone, speaking-tube is by 1825; speaking-trumpet by 1670s.

speechify(v.)

"make a speech, harangue," especially "talk in a pompous, pontifical way," 1723, implied in speechifying, from speech + -ify. With humorous or contemptuous force. Related: Speechification.