forspeak, v.
(fəˈspiːk)
Also fore-.
[f. for- prefix1 + speak. OE. had forspecan to deny.]
1. trans. To bewitch, charm. Obs. exc. Sc.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 173/1 For-spekyn, or charmyn, fascino. c 1460 Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 115 Sythen told me a clerk, that he was forspokyn. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. iii. ii. 45 They [the witches] saie they have..forespoken hir neighbour. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 296 Whosoeuer shall enchant or fore-speake any corne or fruits of the earth. a 1658 Ford, etc. Witch Edmonton ii. i, Urging, That my bad tongue..Forespeaks their cattle. 1895 [see below]. |
† 2. To forbid, renounce. Obs.
| 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Abdicere..to forspeake: to cast of or renounce. 1579 J. Stubbes Gaping Gulf E viij b, If he should speede (which God forspeake). |
† 3. To speak against, speak evil of. Obs.
| a 1300 [see below]. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. vii. 3 Thou hast forspoke my being in these warres, And say'st it is not fit. 1611 W. Sclater Key (1629) 84 The fashion of most men, in such iudgements, is to cry out of ill tongues that have fore-spoken them. |
Hence forˈspeaking vbl. n. and ppl. a.; forˈspoken ppl. a. Also forˈspeaker, a witch.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter xliii. 17 Fra steven of up-braidand and for-spekand. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 582 Facimia, a forspeker or a tylyystere. 1483 Cath. Angl. 138/2 A Forspekynge, fascinacio. 1570 T. Norton tr. Nowel's Catech. (1853) 127 They..which abuse the name of God in..enchantments, in forespeakings, or in any other manner of superstition. 1895 Longm. Mag. Nov. 39 She told him he had been ‘forespoken’..and made him drink water mixed with earth from the ‘fore-speaker's’ grave. |