request, ask for, bespeak, call for, quest
(verb) express the need or desire for; “She requested an extra bed in her room”; “She called for room service”; “when you call, always ask for Mary”
bespeak, betoken, indicate, point, signal
(verb) be a signal for or a symptom of; “These symptoms indicate a serious illness”; “Her behavior points to a severe neurosis”; “The economic indicators signal that the euro is undervalued”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
bespeak (third-person singular simple present bespeaks, present participle bespeaking, simple past (archaic) bespake or bespoke, past participle (archaic) bespoke or bespoken)
(transitive) To speak about; tell of; relate; discuss.
(transitive) To speak for beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for; order or reserve in advance.
(transitive) To stipulate, solicit, ask for, or request, as in a favour.
(transitive, archaic) To forbode; foretell.
(transitive, archaic, poetic) To speak to; address.
(transitive) To betoken; show; indicate; foretell; suggest; allude to.
(intransitive) To speak up or out; exclaim; speak.
bespeak (plural bespeaks)
A request for a specific performance; a benefit performance, by a patron.
• bespake
Source: Wiktionary
Be*speak", v. t. [imp. Bespoke, Bespake (Archaic); p. p. Bespoke, Bespoken (; p. pr. & vb. n. Bespeaking.] Etym: [OE. bispeken, AS. besprecan, to speak to, accuse; pref. be- + sprecan to speak. See Speak.]
1. To speak or arrange for beforehand; to order or engage against a future time; as, to bespeak goods, a right, or a favor. Concluding, naturally, that to gratify his avarice was to bespeak his favor. Sir W. Scott.
2. To show beforehand; to foretell; to indicate. [They] bespoke dangers . . . in order to scare the allies. Swift.
3. To betoken; to show; to indicate by external marks or appearances. When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so little the figure of a man that it bespoke him rather a monster. Locke.
4. To speak to; to address. [Poetic] He thus the queen bespoke. Dryden.
Be*speak", v. i.
Definition: To speak. [Obs.] Milton.
Be*speak", n.
Definition: A bespeaking. Among actors, a benefit (when a particular play is bespoken.) "The night of her bespeak." Dickens.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
6 January 2025
(adverb) (of childbirth) before the end of the normal period of gestation; “the child was born prematurely”
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
