Etymograph

English

speed

Speed comes from Middle English sped ‘prosperity, good luck, quickness, success’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *speh₁-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-1‘to prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōaną1‘to prosper’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōan1‘to succeed’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōdi1‘prosperity’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150spēd1‘success’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sped1‘prosperity’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588speed1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English speed
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-Wiktionary, English speed‘to prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōanąWiktionary, English speed‘to prosper’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōanWiktionary, English speed‘to succeed’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōdiWiktionary, English speed‘prosperity’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150spēdWiktionary, English speed‘success’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spedWiktionary, English speed‘prosperity’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588speedWiktionary, English speed. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life…”

The story

Related also to Old English spōwan (‘to be successful, succeed’), Albanian shpejt (‘to speed, to hurry’) and Russian спеши́ть (spešítʹ, “to hurry”), Latin spēs (‘hope, expectation’), spērō (“hope”, verb), perhaps also to Ancient Greek σπεύδω (speúdō, “to urge on, hasten, press on”).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with speed, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- ‘to prosper, turn out well’

  • spare ← spær ← *sparaz ← *sph₁rós
  • desperate ← desperat(e) ← dēspērātus ← desperare ← dēspērō
  • despair ← dispeir ← despeir ← despero ← spērō
  • spatial ← spatium ← *sph₁-to-
  • desperation ← desperacion ← dēspērātiō ← despero ← spērō
  • prosper ← prosperer ← prosperō ← prosperus ← *prosparos
  • spat ← spatium ← *sph₁-to-
  • esperanza ← esperança ← spērāns ← spērō ← *spēsō
  • desperado ← desesperar ← disperare ← sperō ← spēs
  • esperance ← esperer ← esperer ← spērō ← spēs

4 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of speed

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-‘to succeed, prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spóh₁-e-tireconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōanąreconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōan‘to succeed, prosper’reconstructed
  5. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spōdizreconstructed
  6. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōdi‘success, prosperity’reconstructed
  7. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spōdijan‘to succeed’reconstructed
  8. Old Englishc. 450–1150spēdan‘to speed, prosper, succeed, have success’
  9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500speden‘to assist, help’
  10. Englishtodayspeed

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Today it means

noun The state of moving quickly or the capacity for rapid motion.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “speed”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- / speed