speculate

speculate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin speculātus, past participle of speculor (“look out”), from specula (“watchtower”), from speciō (“look at”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈspɛk.jʊˌleɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈspɛk.jəˌleɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

speculate (third-person singular simple present speculates, present participle speculating, simple past and past participle speculated)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 13, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, OCLC 223202227:

     It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.

2. (intransitive) To make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.
   • 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 171:

     We can speculate that in many instances the sharks are not feeding on their victims, but only in a few cases can we guess what they are doing.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

3. (intransitive, business, finance) To make a risky trade in the hope of making a profit; to venture or gamble.
4. (intransitive, programming) To anticipate which branch of code will be chosen and execute it in advance.

Related terms

• species
• spectacle
• spectacular
• speculation
• speculative
• speculator

Translations

(obsolete in English) to meditate

Bulgarian: размишлявам (bg) (razmišljavam) Chinese: Mandarin: 沉思 (zh) Danish: spekulere Finnish: pohtia (fi), pohdiskella (fi) French: spéculer (fr) German: spekulieren (de), Vermutungen anstellen Hungarian: mereng (hu), spekulál (hu) Italian: cogitare (it), meditare (it), escogitare (it) Maori: kohuki, whakaaroaro Russian: размышля́ть (ru) (razmyšljátʹ), де́лать предположе́ния (délatʹ predpoložénija) Swedish: spekulera (sv)

to make an inference based on inconclusive evidence

Bulgarian: спекулирам (bg) (spekuliram) Danish: gætte Dutch: vermoeden (nl) Finnish: arvailla (fi), jossitella (fi) German: vermuten (de) Greek: Ancient: θεωρέω (theōréō) Hungarian: spekulál (hu) Ido: spekular (io) Indonesian: berspekulasi (id) Italian: speculare (it), elucubrare (it) Maori: kohuki Polish: gdybać impf Russian: предполага́ть (ru) (predpolagátʹ)

to make a risky trade

Bulgarian: спекулирам (bg) (spekuliram) Czech: spekulovat (cs) Danish: spekulere Dutch: speculeren (nl) Finnish: keinotella (fi), spekuloida (fi) French: spéculer (fr) German: spekulieren (de) Hungarian: spekulál (hu) Italian: speculare (it), giocare (it), investire (it), approfittarsi Polish: spekulować (pl) impf Russian: спекули́ровать (ru) (spekulírovatʹ) Swedish: spekulera (sv)

Further reading

• speculate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• speculate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Anagrams

• peculates

---

Italian

Verb

speculate

1. inflection of speculare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Participle

speculate f pl

1. feminine plural of speculato

---

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /spe.kuˈlaː.te/, [s̠pɛkʊˈɫ̪äːt̪ɛ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /spe.kuˈla.te/, [spekuˈläːt̪e]

Participle

speculāte

1. vocative masculine singular of speculātus