speed: [OE] Speed originally meant ‘success, prosperity’ – and when you wish someone Godspeed, you are wishing them ‘good fortune’. Largely, though, it is the secondary sense ‘quickness’, which first emerged in the late Old English period, that has survived to the present day. It has a surviving Germanic relative in Dutch spoed ‘quickness’, and it also has possible links with Old Church Slavonic speti ‘succeed’. It was first used as a slang term for ‘amphetamine’ in the mid 1960s.
speed (n.)
Old English sped "success, a successful course; prosperity, riches, wealth; luck; opportunity, advancement," from Proto-Germanic *spodiz (cognates: Old Saxon spod "success," Dutch spoed "haste, speed," Old High German spuot "success," Old Saxon spodian "to cause to succeed," Middle Dutch spoeden, Old High German spuoten "to haste"), from PIE *spo-ti-, from root *spe- (1) "to thrive, prosper" (cognates: Sanskrit sphayate "increases," Latin sperare "to hope," Old Church Slavonic spechu "endeavor," Lithuanian speju "to have leisure").
Meaning "rapidity of movement, quickness, swiftness" emerged in late Old English (at first usually adverbially, in dative plural, as in spedum feran). Meaning "rate of motion or progress" (whether fast or slow) is from c. 1200. Meaning "gear of a machine" is attested from 1866. Meaning "methamphetamine, or a related drug," first attested 1967, from its effect on users.
Speed limit is from 1879 (originally of locomotives); speed-trap is from 1908. Speed bump is 1975; figurative sense is 1990s. Full speed is recorded from late 14c. Speed reading first attested 1965. Speedball "mix of cocaine and morphine or heroin" is recorded from 1909.
speed (v.)
Old English spedan (intransitive) "to succeed, prosper, grow rich, advance," from the stem of speed (n.). Compare Old Saxon spodian, Middle Dutch spoeden "hasten," Old High German spuoton "to succeed, prosper," German sputen "make haste, hurry." Meaning "to go hastily from place to place, move rapidly" is attested from c. 1200. Transitive meaning "cause to advance toward success" is from mid-13c.; that of "send forth with quickness, give a high speed to" is first recorded 1560s; that of "to increase the work rate of" (usually with up) is from 1856. Meaning "drive an automobile too fast" is from 1908. Related: Speeded; sped; speeding.
双语例句
1. He pushed everyone full speed ahead until production hit a bottleneck.
他催促所有人拼命干活，直到生产遭遇瓶颈。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The camera combines rugged reliability with unequalled optical performance and speed.
这款相机既坚固耐用，又有超凡的光学性能和快门速度。
来自柯林斯例句
3. It all started so promisingly when Speed scored a tremendous first goal.
比赛开始的时候形势大好，斯皮德以一记精彩的进球拔得头筹。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The train's average speed was no better than that of our bicycles.
火车的平均速度比我们骑自行车的速度快不了多少。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The vehicles have a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour.
