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speck

noun

  1. very small spot or amount
  2. fat
  3. manuscript printed with low effort
L27944 on Wikidata ↗

verb

  1. to bet, speculate
L333084 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /spɛk/

name

Etymology: * As a German surname, from the noun Speck (“bacon”). * As an English surname, variant of Speake, and perhaps a variant of Peck with an initial -s.

  1. A surname from German.

noun

Etymology: From earlier specke, spycke (probably reinforced by Dutch spek, German Speck), from Middle English spik, spyk, spike, spich, from Old English spic (“bacon; lard; fat”), from Proto-West Germanic *spik, from Proto-Germanic *spiką (“bacon”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Späk, Dutch spek, German Speck, Icelandic spik.

  1. Fat; lard; fat meat.
  2. A juniper-flavoured ham originally from Tyrol.
  3. The blubber of whales or other marine mammals.
  4. The fat of the hippopotamus.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English spekke, from Old English specca (“small spot, stain”), from the same ultimate source as Proto-Germanic *sprakô (“spark”). Cognate with Low German spaken (“to spot with wet”).

  1. To mark with specks; to speckle.

    “paper specked by impurities in the water used in its manufacture”

    “Each flower of slender stalk, whose head though gay / Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, / Hung drooping unsustained, […]”