- 1
To bespeak something, in this sense, is to be a sign of it — to show it without saying it out loud. A worn suitcase may bespeak years of travel; calm hands may bespeak long practice. It is formal and a little old. You will meet it in novels and careful reviews more than in speech. Though actually the same verb once also meant to order something ahead of time (a room, a coat), and that older “speak for it first” sense is how we got . Do not hear this word as “speak to someone.” Nobody bespeaks you when they talk to you. The living use in careful English is this “be a sign of” one.
顯示；表明；流露出（文言；不是「對某人說話」）
組成be- + speak. From Old English, originally “to speak about,” “to speak against,” or “to claim with words.” Sister words in Dutch and German mean “to discuss.” The “be a sign of” meaning grew from the idea that a thing “speaks for” a fact.
原始詞典資料8 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
bespeakverb/bɪˈspiːk/
- 1
archaicformalTo speak about; tell of; relate; discuss.
- [They] bespoke dangers […] in order to scare the allies.
- 2
To speak for beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for; order or reserve in advance.
- concluding, naturally, that to gratify his avarice was to bespeak his favour
- I walked on into the village, with the desertion of this house upon my mind, and I found the landlord of the little inn, sanding his door-step. I bespoke breakfast, and broached the subject of the house.
- 3
To stipulate, solicit, ask for, or request, as in a favour.
- to bespeak a calm hearing
- I bespeak your patience in advance.
- 4
archaicTo forbode; foretell.
- 5
archaicTo speak to; address.
- Then ſtaring on her with a ghaſtly Look, / And hollow Voice, he thus the Queen beſpoke.
- Spurring his horse, he galloped down to the shore and bespoke them.
- 6
To betoken; show; indicate; depict; foretell; suggest; allude to.
- This act bespeaks his kindness.
- When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so little the figure of a man that it bespake him rather a monster.
- 7
To speak up or out; exclaim; speak.
bespeaknoun/bɪˈspiːk/
- 1
archaicA request for a specific performance; a benefit performance, by a patron.
- "By the bye, I've been thinking of bringing out that piece of yours on her bespeak night." "When?" asked Nicholas. "The night of her bespeak. Her benefit night. When her friends and patrons bespeak the play." "Oh! I understand," replied Nicholas.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。