Etymograph

English

speed

Speed comes from Middle English sped ‘prosperity, good luck, quickness, success’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *speh₁-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-‘to prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōaną‘to prosper’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōan‘to succeed’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*spōdi‘prosperity’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150spēd‘success’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sped‘prosperity’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588speed

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-‘to prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōaną‘to prosper’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōan‘to succeed’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*spōdi‘prosperity’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150spēd‘success’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sped‘prosperity’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588speed

Earliest quotation: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life…”

The story

Related also to Old English spōwan (‘to be successful, succeed’), Albanian shpejt (‘to speed, to hurry’) and Russian спеши́ть (spešítʹ, “to hurry”), Latin spēs (‘hope, expectation’), spērō (“hope”, verb), perhaps also to Ancient Greek σπεύδω (speúdō, “to urge on, hasten, press on”).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- ‘to prosper, turn out well’

spare, desperate, despair, spatial, desperation, prosper, spat, esperanza, desperado, esperance, 4 more

Another origin of speed

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-‘to succeed, prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*spóh₁-e-tireconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōanąreconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōan‘to succeed, prosper’reconstructed
  5. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōdizreconstructed
  6. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōdi‘success, prosperity’reconstructed
  7. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*spōdijan‘to succeed’reconstructed
  8. Old Englishc. 450–1150spēdan‘to speed, prosper, succeed, have success’
  9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500speden‘to assist, help’
  10. Englishtodayspeed

Today it means

noun The state of moving quickly or the capacity for rapid motion.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- / speed

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