Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “speech” come from?

Speech comes from Middle English speche, Old English sprǣċ, Proto-Germanic sprēkijō, and Proto-Indo-European spereg-, ultimately from the root (s)per-.

speech (English): The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or...

Definitions

  1. The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or...

Ancestry of “speech”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishspechespeaking, speech; dialogue, discussion,...
2Old Englishspǣċ—
3Proto-West Germanic*sprāku—

Words derived from “speech”

  • speeches
  • speechwriter
  • speechwriting
  • nonspeech
  • speechmaking
  • speechreading
  • speechmaker
  • speechify
  • speechlike
  • cyberspeech
  • prespeech
  • counterspeech
  • speechifier
  • speechful
  • protospeech
  • midspeech
  • speeching
  • speechification
  • speechy
  • antispeech
  • speechcraft
  • speechfulness
  • misspeech
  • endspeech
Every word from Proto-West Germanic *sprāku →