/speɪk/
OriginFrom Middle English spake, spak, from Old Norse spakr (“wise, gentle, quiet”), from Proto-Germanic *spakaz (“wise, clever”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peǵ- (“to understand; intelligent, attentive”). Cognate with Swedish spak (“manageable”), Danish spag (“quiet, gentle, timid, tame”).
- obsoleteQuiet; tame.
- obsoleteReady; prompt.
- archaic, form-of, pastsimple past of speak
“And God ſpake vnto Noah, ſaying, / Goe foorth of the Arke, thou, and thy wife, and thy ſonnes, and thy ſonnes wiues with thee:[…]”
“He answered me with pleasure and surprise; / And there was, while he spake, a fire about his eyes.”
“But at last his heart changed,—and rising one morning with the rosy dawn, he went before the sun, and spake thus unto it: Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom ”
- WalesA type of wagon on rails used for carrying workers in and out of a colliery.
Formsmore spake(comparative) · most spake(superlative) · spakes(plural) · Spakes(plural)