different between plunge vs speed

English

Etymology

From Middle English plungen, ploungen, Anglo-Norman plungier, from Old French plongier, (Modern French plonger), from unattested Late Latin frequentative to throw a leaded line, from plumbum (“lead”). Compare plumb, plounce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl?nd?/
• Rhymes: -?nd?

Verb

plunge (third-person singular simple present plunges, present participle plunging, simple past and past participle plunged)

1. (transitive) To thrust into liquid, or into any penetrable substance; to immerse.

2. (figuratively, transitive) To cast, stab or throw into some thing, state, condition or action.

3. (transitive, figuratively) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To baptize by immersion.
5. (intransitive) To dive, leap or rush (into water or some liquid); to submerge oneself.

6. (figuratively, intransitive) To fall or rush headlong into some thing, action, state or condition.
7. (intransitive) To pitch or throw oneself headlong or violently forward, as a horse does.
   • 1654, Joseph Hall, Select Thoughts, or Choice Helps for a Pious Spirit

     some wild colt, which […] flings and plunges

8. (intransitive, slang) To bet heavily and recklessly; to risk large sums in gambling.
9. (intransitive, obsolete) To entangle or embarrass (mostly used in past participle).
10. (intransitive, obsolete) To overwhelm, overpower.

Translations

Noun

plunge (plural plunges)

1. the act of plunging or submerging
2. a dive, leap, rush, or pitch into (into water)

   to take the water with a plunge

   A plunge into the sea

3. (dated) A swimming pool
4. (figuratively) the act of pitching or throwing oneself headlong or violently forward, like an unruly horse
5. (slang) heavy and reckless betting in horse racing; hazardous speculation
6. (obsolete) an immersion in difficulty, embarrassment, or distress; the condition of being surrounded or overwhelmed; a strait; difficulty

Translations

References

• plunge in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “plunge”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000

Anagrams

• pungle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spi?d/
• Rhymes: -i?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English spede (“prosperity, good luck, quickness, success”), from Old English sp?d (“luck, prosperity, success”), from Proto-West Germanic *sp?di (“prosperity, success”), from Proto-West Germanic *sp?an, Proto-Germanic *sp?an? (“to prosper, succeed, be happy”), from Proto-Indo-European *speh?- (“to prosper, turn out well”). Cognate with Scots spede, speid (“success, quickness, speed”), Dutch spoed (“haste; speed”), German Low German Spood (“haste; speed; eagerness; success”), German Sput (“progress, acceleration, haste”). Related also to Old English sp?wan (“to be successful, succeed”), Albanian shpejt (“to speed, to hurry”) and Russian ???????? (spešít?, “to hurry”), Latin sp?s (“hope, expectation”), sp?r? (“hope”, verb), perhaps also to Ancient Greek ?????? (speúd?, “to urge on, hasten, press on”).

Noun

speed (countable and uncountable, plural speeds)

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

   Synonyms: celerity, rapidity, velocity

2. (mathematics, physics) The rate of motion or action, specifically the magnitude of the velocity; the rate distance is traversed in a given time.

   Hyponyms: lightspeed, speed of light, speed of sound

3. (photography) The sensitivity to light of film, plates or sensor.
4. (photography) The duration of exposure, the time during which a camera shutter is open (shutter speed).
5. (photography) The largest size of the lens opening at which a lens can be used.
6. (photography) The ratio of the focal length to the diameter of a photographic objective.
7. (slang, uncountable) Amphetamine or any amphetamine-based drug (especially methamphetamine) used as a stimulant, especially illegally.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:methamphetamine

8. (archaic) Luck, success, prosperity.
9. (slang) Personal preference.

10. (finance, uncountable) A third-order measure of derivative price sensitivity, expressed as the rate of change of gamma with respect to changes in the underlying asset price.

    Synonyms: DgammaDspot, gamma of the gamma

    Hypernym: Greeks

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Units for measuring speed: metres/meters per second, m/s, kilometres/kilometers per hour, km/h (metric); knot, kt, kn (nautical); feet per second, ft/s, ft/sec and fps, miles per hour, mph (imperial and U.S. customary); mach (aeronautical)

Etymology 2

From Middle English speden, from Old English sp?dan (“to speed, prosper, succeed, have success”), from Proto-West Germanic *sp?dijan (“to succeed”). Cognate with Scots spede, speid (“to meet with success, assist, promote, accomplish, speed”), Dutch spoeden (“to hurry, rush”), Low German spoden, spöden (“to hasten, speed”), German sputen, spuden (“to speed”).

Verb

speed (third-person singular simple present speeds, present participle speeding, simple past and past participle sped or (mostly UK) speeded)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To succeed; to prosper, be lucky.
   • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act V, Scene i^[1]:

     We have been praying for our husbands' healths,

     Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.

     Are they returned?

   • 18^thc., Oliver Goldsmith, Introductory to Switzerland

     At night returning, every labor sped, / He sits him down the monarch of a shed: / Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys, / His children’s looks, that brighten at the blaze;

2. (transitive, archaic) To help someone, to give them fortune; to aid or favour.
   • with rising gales that sped their happy flight

3. (intransitive) To go fast.
4. (intransitive) To exceed the speed limit.

5. (transitive) To increase the rate at which something occurs.
   • 1982, Carole Offir & Carole Wade, Human sexuality, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p.454:

     It is possible that the uterine contractions speed the sperm along.

   • 2004, James M. Cypher & James L. Dietz, The process of economic development, Routledge, p.359:

     Such interventions can help to speed the process of reducing CBRs and help countries pass through the demographic transition threshold more quickly […].

6. (intransitive, slang) To be under the influence of stimulant drugs, especially amphetamines.
   • 2008, Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap, Allen and Unwin, p.46:

     If Hector had not been speeding, it was possible that his next thought would have hurt: he loves his uncle unconditionally, in a way he will never love me.

7. (obsolete) To be expedient.
8. (archaic) To hurry to destruction; to put an end to; to ruin.
9. (archaic) To wish success or good fortune to, in any undertaking, especially in setting out upon a journey.
10. To cause to make haste; to dispatch with celerity; to drive at full speed; hence, to hasten; to hurry.

    • He sped him thence, home to his habitation.

11. To hasten to a conclusion; to expedite.
    • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon juris canonici Anglicani

      Judicial acts […] are sped in open court at the instance of one or both of the parties.

Usage notes

• The Cambridge Guide to English Usage indicates that sped is for objects in motion (the race car sped) while speeded is used for activities or processes, but notes that the British English convention does not hold in American English.
• Garner's Modern American Usage (2009) indicates that speeded is incorrect, except in the phrasal verb, speed up. Most American usage of speeded conforms to this.
• Sped is about six times more common in American English (COCA) than speeded. Sped is twice as common in UK English (BNC).

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:speed.

Derived terms

• speed up
• Godspeed

Translations

Anagrams

• Peeds, deeps, pedes, spede

French

Noun

speed m (plural speeds)

1. speed (amphetamine)