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speak

v. · n.
US //ˈspik// UK //spˈiːk// speak
Irregular verb past spoke past participle spoken
  1. 1 to understand a topic (v.)
    C1 Advanced Humorous Informal

    to understand a difficult subject as if it were a language you know.

    to be familiar with or understand a specific, often technical or complex, subject matter.

    Example

    I don't speak computer, so you'll have to explain the error to me simply.

    Example

    Unless you speak advanced calculus, the first half of the lecture will likely be incomprehensible to you.
  2. 2 to show a feeling (v.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Literary

    to show a fact or a feeling without using words.

    to serve as an indication or evidence of a particular quality or fact.

    Example

    The empty house spoke of better times when the family lived there.

    Example

    The silence in the room spoke volumes about the tension between the two negotiators.
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  1. 3 special language (n.)
    C1 Advanced Informal

    the special words used by a specific group of people.

    the jargon, terminology, or characteristic way of speaking associated with a particular group or environment.

    Example

    I couldn't understand the corporate speak used in the meeting.

    Example

    The manual was written in such dense tech-speak that even the experienced engineers struggled to follow the instructions.

    Usage

    Usually appears as a suffix or the second part of a compound noun (e.g., 'corporate-speak', 'tech-speak').
Origin

From Middle English speke, speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”). This is usually taken to be an irregular alteration of earlier sprecan, spreocan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic sprekan, from Proto-Germanic sprekaną (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”). Finding this proposed loss of r from the stable cluster spr unparalleled, Hill instead sets up a different root, Proto-West Germanic spekan (“to negotiate”) from Proto-Indo-European bʰégʾ-e- (“to distribute”) with s-mobile, which collapsed in meaning with *sprekan ("to speak" < "to crackle, prattle") and so came to be seen as a free variant thereof. Cognates Cognate with Scots speak, speik (“to speak”), Saterland Frisian spreke (“to speak”), West Frisian sprekke (“to speak”), Central Franconian sjprèche (“to speak”), Dutch and Low German spreken (“to speak”), German sprechen (“to speak”), Luxembourgish spriechen (“to speak”), and also with Albanian shpreh (“to express, manifest, show”) through Indo-European.

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