speculate
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin speculātus, perfect active participle of speculor (“to watch, observe, examine, spy”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from specula (“a watchtower”), ultimately from speciō (“to look at”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈspɛk.jʊˌleɪt/
- (US, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈspɛk.jəˌleɪt/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈspek.jəˌlæɪt/
Verb
[edit]speculate (third-person singular simple present speculates, present participle speculating, simple past and past participle speculated)
- (obsolete, intransitive) To think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.
- 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 13, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
- It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.
- (intransitive) To make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.
- 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 171:
- We can speculate that in many instances the sharks are not feeding on their victims, but only in a few cases can we guess what they are doing.
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].
- (intransitive, business, finance) To make a risky trade in the hope of making a profit; to venture or gamble.
- 1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 345:
- Some preliminary legal arrangements were made, but the scheme proceeded no further, as the various local authorities concerned were unwilling to speculate public funds on what was, even at that date, a will o' the wisp.
- (intransitive, programming) To anticipate which branch of code will be chosen and execute it in advance.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit](obsolete in English) to meditate
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to make an inference based on inconclusive evidence
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to make a risky trade
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Further reading
[edit]- “speculate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “speculate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
Anagrams
[edit]Italian
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Verb
[edit]speculate
- inflection of speculare:
Etymology 2
[edit]Participle
[edit]speculate f pl
Latin
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /spe.kuˈlaː.te/, [s̠pɛkʊˈɫ̪äːt̪ɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /spe.kuˈla.te/, [spekuˈläːt̪e]
Participle
[edit]speculāte
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *speḱ-
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms suffixed with -ate (verb)
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English 4-syllable words
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- en:Business
- en:Finance
- en:Programming
- en:Thinking
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian verb forms
- Italian past participle forms
- Latin 4-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin participle forms