speck
noun
- very small spot or amount
- fat
- manuscript printed with low effort
verb
- to bet, speculate
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.
- 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.
- Fat; lard; fat meat.
- A juniper-flavoured ham originally from Tyrol.
- The blubber of whales or other marine mammals.
- 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”).
- 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, […]”