different between speak vs jabber
speak
English
Alternative forms
- speake (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”), alteration of earlier sprecan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprekan, from Proto-Germanic *sprekan? (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /spi?k/
- (General American) enPR: sp?k, IPA(key): /spik/
- Rhymes: -i?k
Verb
speak (third-person singular simple present speaks, present participle speaking, simple past spoke or (archaic) spake, past participle spoken or (colloquial, nonstandard) spoke)
- (intransitive) To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
- (intransitive, reciprocal) To have a conversation.
- (by extension) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
- (intransitive) To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
- (transitive) To be able to communicate in a language.
- (by extension) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
- (by extension) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
- (transitive) To utter.
- (transitive) To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
- 1785, Frances Burney, Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay, author of Evelina, Cecilia, &c., link:
- Their behaviour to each other speaks the most cordial confidence and happiness.
- 1785, Frances Burney, Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay, author of Evelina, Cecilia, &c., link:
- (informal, transitive, sometimes humorous) To understand (as though it were a language).
- (intransitive) To produce a sound; to sound.
- Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
- (transitive, archaic) To address; to accost; to speak to.
- [He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair.
- 1842, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Threnody in "Poems", published 1847, page 239
- Each village senior paused to scan / And speak the lovely caravan.
- 2013, George Francis Dow, Slave Ships and Slaving (quoting an older text)
- Spoke the ship Union of Newport, without any anchor. The next day ran down to Acra, where the windlass was again capsized and the pawls broken.
Usage notes
- Saying that one speaks a language often means that one can or knows how to speak it ("I speak Italian"); similarly, "I don't speak Italian" usually means that one cannot, rather than that one chooses not to.
Synonyms
- articulate, talk, verbalize
Antonyms
- be silent
Derived terms
Coordinate terms
- sign
Related terms
- speech
Translations
Noun
speak (countable and uncountable, plural speaks)
- language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group.
- Corporate speak; IT speak.
- Speech, conversation.
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
speak (plural speaks)
- (dated) a low class bar, a speakeasy.
Anagrams
- Akpes, Paeks, Pasek, Peaks, Spake, kapes, peaks, spake
Scots
Etymology
From Old English sprecan
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [sp?k]
- (North Northern Scots) IPA(key): [sp?k]
Verb
speak (third-person singular present speaks, present participle speakin, past spak, past participle spoken)
- to speak
Derived terms
speak From the web:
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- what speakers work with alexa
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- what speaker wire is positive
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jabber
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?d?æb?(?)/
- Rhymes: -æb?(?)
Etymology 1
Imitative.
Verb
jabber (third-person singular simple present jabbers, present participle jabbering, simple past and past participle jabbered)
- (intransitive) To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense.
- 1829, James Hogg, The Shepherd’s Calendar, New York: A.T. Goodrich, Volume I, Chapter 9, “Mary Burnet,” p. 184,[1]
- Allanson made some sound in his throat, as if attempting to speak, but his tongue refused its office, and he only jabbered.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 19,[2]
- “What are you jabbering about, shipmate?” said I.
- 1829, James Hogg, The Shepherd’s Calendar, New York: A.T. Goodrich, Volume I, Chapter 9, “Mary Burnet,” p. 184,[1]
- (transitive) To utter rapidly or indistinctly; to gabble.
- 1939, H. G. Wells, The Holy Terror, Book One, Chapter 1, Section 2,[3]
- He wept very little, but when he wept he howled aloud, and jabbered wild abuse, threats and recriminations through the wet torrent of his howling.
- 1939, H. G. Wells, The Holy Terror, Book One, Chapter 1, Section 2,[3]
Translations
Noun
jabber (uncountable)
- Rapid or incoherent talk, with indistinct utterance; gibberish.
- 1735, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, edited by George Faulkner, Dublin, 1735, Volume 3, A Letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson, pp. v-vi,[4]
- And, is there less Probability in my Account of the Houyhnhnms or Yahoos, when it is manifest as to the latter, there are so many Thousands even in this City, who only differ from their Brother Brutes in Houyhnhnmland, because they use a Sort of a Jabber, and do not go naked.
- 1918, Carl Sandburg, “Jabberers” in Cornhuskers, New York: Henry Holt & Co., p. 68,[5]
- Two tongues from the depths,
- Alike only as a yellow cat and a green parrot are alike,
- Fling their staccato tantalizations
- Into a wildcat jabber
- Over a gossamer web of unanswerables.
- 1735, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, edited by George Faulkner, Dublin, 1735, Volume 3, A Letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson, pp. v-vi,[4]
Derived terms
- jabberment (obsolete)
Translations
Etymology 2
jab +? -er
Noun
jabber (plural jabbers)
- One who or that which jabs.
- A kind of hand-operated corn planter.
- 1999, Nicholas P. Hardeman, Across the Bloody Chasm
- The jabber was the most popular hand-operated corn planter ever devised. […] Inset shows jaws closed for jabbing (left) and open for depositing kernels (right).
- 1999, Nicholas P. Hardeman, Across the Bloody Chasm
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