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bespeak

verb
/bɪˈspiːk/

Etymology

From Middle English bespeken, bispeken, from Old English *bespecan, besprecan (“to speak about, speak against, accuse of, claim at law, complain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisprekan (“to discuss, blame”), from Proto-Germanic *bisprekaną (“to speak about, discuss, blame”), equivalent to be- + speak. Cognate with Scots bespeke (“to beseech, speak or negotiate with”), Saterland Frisian bispreke (“to discuss”), West Frisian besprekke (“to discuss”), Dutch bespreken (“to discuss, review, debate”), German besprechen (“to discuss, review, talk about”).

  1. inherited from *bisprekaną✻ — “to speak about, discuss, blame”
  2. inherited from *bisprekan✻ — “to discuss, blame”
  3. inherited from *bespecan✻
  4. inherited from bespeken

Definitions

  1. To speak about

    To speak about; tell of; relate; discuss.

    • [They] bespoke dangers […] in order to scare the allies.

  2. To speak for beforehand

    To speak for beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for; order or reserve in advance.

    • concluding, naturally, that to gratify his avarice was to bespeak his favour
    • I walked on into the village, with the desertion of this house upon my mind, and I found the landlord of the little inn, sanding his door-step. I bespoke breakfast, and broached the subject of the house.

  3. To stipulate, solicit, ask for, or request, as in a favour.

    • to bespeak a calm hearing
    • I bespeak your patience in advance.
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. To forbode

      To forbode; foretell.

    2. To speak to

      To speak to; address.

      • Then ſtaring on her with a ghaſtly Look, / And hollow Voice, he thus the Queen beſpoke.
      • Spurring his horse, he galloped down to the shore and bespoke them.

    3. To betoken

      To betoken; show; indicate; depict; foretell; suggest; allude to.

      • This act bespeaks his kindness.
      • When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so little the figure of a man that it bespake him rather a monster.

    4. To speak up or out

      To speak up or out; exclaim; speak.

    5. A request for a specific performance

      A request for a specific performance; a benefit performance, by a patron.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bespeak. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA