speech - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English speche, from Old English spǣċ, sprǣċ (“speech, discourse, language”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprāku (“speech, language”), from Proto-Indo-European *spereg-, *spreg- (“to make a sound”). Cognate with Dutch spraak (“speech”), German Sprache (“language, speech”). More at speak.

speech (countable and uncountable, plural speeches)

  1. (uncountable) The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate.
    He had a bad speech impediment.
    After the accident she lost her speech.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion […] such talk had been distressingly out of place.
    • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “XV AND XVIII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
      I was at liberty to attend to Wilbert, who I could see desired speech with me. […] As far as Bobbie and I were concerned, silence reigned, this novel twist in the scenario having wiped speech from our lips, as the expression is, but Phyllis continued vocal. […] For perhaps a quarter of a minute after he had passed from the scene the aged relative stood struggling for utterance. At the end of this period she found speech. “Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!”
  2. (uncountable) The act of speaking, a certain style of it.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:speech
    It was hard to hear his speech over the noise.
    Her speech was soft and lilting.
    • 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:
      Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.
  3. (countable) A formal session of speaking, especially a long oral message given publicly by one person.
    Synonyms: address, allocution, monologue, oration, soliloquy
    The candidate made some ambitious promises in his campaign speech.
    • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “I AND XII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
      He's going to present the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. We've been caught short as usual, and somebody has got to make a speech on ideals and the great world outside to those blasted boys, so he fits in nicely. I believe he's a very fine speaker. His only trouble is that he's stymied unless he has his speech with him and can read it. Calls it referring to his notes. […] “So that's why he's been going about looking like a dead fish. I suppose Roberta broke the engagement?” “In a speech lasting five minutes without a pause for breath.”
  4. (countable) A dialect, vernacular, or (dated) a language.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:language
    • 1542, Andrew Boorde, The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge:
      The speche of Englande is a base speche to other noble speches, as Italion, Castylion, and Frenche; howbeit the speche of Englande of late dayes is amended.
  5. (uncountable) Language used orally, rather than in writing.
    This word is mostly used in speech.
  6. (grammar) An utterance that is quoted; see direct speech, reported speech
  7. (uncountable) Public talk, news, gossip, rumour.

vocal communication

an oration, session of speaking — see also sermon

speech (third-person singular simple present speeches, present participle speeching, simple past and past participle speeched)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To make (a speech); to harangue.
    • 1711 [December?] (date written), Jonathan Swift, “An Excellent New Song. Being the Intended Speech of a Famous Orator against Peace [_i.e._, Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham].”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 73:
      I'll speech against peace while Dismal's my name, / And be a true whig, while I'm Not-in-game.
    • 1731, The Statesman: A New Court Ballad, page 7:
      So to Speeching he did go, / And like a Man of Senſe, / He certainly ſaid Ay or No,
    • 1905 June 11, “Cheer Battery Dan at Lawyers’ Recption […]”, in The New York Times‎[2], volume LIV, number 17,305, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 3:
      Two lawyers who had come over from Williamsburg to make speeches in honor of Battery Dan were told by Lawyer William J. Caffrey that only Manhattanites would be allowed to speak. “If you let my friend speech something,” said one of the Williamsburgers, “I will be satisfactioned mitout[_sic_] speeching. […]”
    • 1965 June, “Wales, Land of Bards”, in National Geographic, volume 127, number 6:
      "He wasn't one to make himself big," said Mr. Jones. "But he had something that drew the people when he was speeching... When he came down we all used to shout 'Lloyd George am byth!' You know, 'Lloyd George forever!' That was just how we felt."
  1. ^ Luick, Karl (1929-1940), Herbert Wild, Friedrich Koziol, editors, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache‎[1], Erster Band, II. Abteilung, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1940, →OCLC, § 481, page 557.

Borrowed from English speech.

speech m (plural speechen or speeches, diminutive speechje n)

  1. speech, oration (oral monologic address of some length)
    redevoering (“toespraak”)

speech m (plural speechs)

  1. an informal speech
    Synonym: allocution

Unadapted borrowing from English speech.

speech n (plural speech-uri)

  1. speech

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