bespeak
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɪˈspiːk/
rhymes: -iːk
Forms: form: bespeaks
form: bespeaking
form: bespoke
form: bespake
form: bespoken
form: bespoke
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”).
Senses: examples: text: [They] bespoke dangers […] in order to scare the allies.
ref: 1711, Jonathan Swift, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3, The Examiner, Number 44, page 244
glosses: To speak about; tell of; relate; discuss.
examples: text: concluding, naturally, that to gratify his avarice was to bespeak his favour
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House:
glosses: To speak for beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for; order or reserve in advance.
examples: text: to bespeak a calm hearing
text: I bespeak your patience in advance.
glosses: To stipulate, solicit, ask for, or request, as in a favour.
glosses: To forbode; foretell.
examples: text: Then ſtaring on her with a ghaſtly Look, / And hollow Voice, he thus the Queen beſpoke.
ref: 1717, John Dryden, “Book XI. [The House of Sleep.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 401:
text: Spurring his horse, he galloped down to the shore and bespoke them.
ref: 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 23:
glosses: To speak to; address.
examples: text: This act bespeaks his kindness.
text: When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so little the figure of a man that it bespake him rather a monster.
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 3, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:
text: Turning her looks unconsciously to that part of the assembly where Douglas leaned, engaged in serious contemplation, Ellina chanced to encounter his eye intently fixed upon her; the expression of which bespeaking at once pity and benevolence, her heart, mortified, reproached her for her lightness.
ref: 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XVI, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 228:
text: This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.[…]He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Are they telling your story vividly, strikingly, in designs that command attention, in colors that bespeak distinction?
ref: 1921, Printers' Ink, volume 114, page 50:
text: [...] the drop in speed only from 66 to 53 m.p.h. up the six miles at 1 in 176-200-167 to Saunderton summit bespoke a hard effort, [...]
ref: 1961 February, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 87:
glosses: To betoken; show; indicate; depict; foretell; suggest; allude to.
glosses: To speak up or out; exclaim; speak.
Derived terms: bespeakable
bespeaker
bespeaking
bespoke
unbespeak