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Speck
Definitions
- 1 A surname from German.
- 1 A tiny spot or particle, especially of dirt.
"a tiny speck of soot"
- 2 Fat; lard; fat meat. uncountable
- 3 a very small spot wordnet
- 4 A very small amount; a particle; a whit.
"He has not a speck of money."
- 5 A juniper-flavoured ham originally from Tyrol. uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 a slight but appreciable amount wordnet
- 7 A small etheostomoid fish, Etheostoma stigmaeum, common in the eastern United States.
- 8 The blubber of whales or other marine mammals. uncountable
- 9 (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything wordnet
- 10 The fat of the hippopotamus. uncountable
- 1 To mark with specks; to speckle. transitive
"paper specked by impurities in the water used in its manufacture"
- 2 produce specks in or on wordnet
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”).
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”).
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.
* 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.
See also for "speck"
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