v. [f. L. speculāt-, ppl. stem of speculārī to spy out, watch, examine, observe, etc., f. specula a look-out, watch-tower, f. specĕre to see, look. Cf. It. speculare, specolare, Sp. and Pg. especular, OF. especuler, speculer, F. spéculer.]
1. trans. To observe or view mentally; to consider, examine, or reflect upon with close attention; to contemplate; to theorize upon.
Common in the 17th c.; now rare or Obs.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 62. Yet notwithstanding these are theorems which few list to speculate.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 12. To speculate the meanes of negotiating with diversity of persons, and to put the same in practise.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., II. § 13. If we do but speculate the folly and indisputable dotage of avarice.
a. 1706. Evelyn, Hist. Relig. (1850), I. 54. We should not, therefore, wholly consult our senses when we speculate truth.
1788. T. Taylor, Proclus, I. 74. It is just, after speculating its whole and entire genus, to consider the differences of its more particular sciences, according to their species. Ibid. (1793), Sallust, V. 24. Likewise … we should speculate providence, fate and fortune, virtue and vice.
1852. Sir W. Hamilton, Discuss., 20–1. We … conceit ourselves that we contemplate absolute existence, when we only speculate absolute privation.
b. Said of the soul, understanding, etc.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, IV. ii. § 2. 129. A gluttonous stomacke … causeth such a mist before the eyes of the soule, that shee cannot possibly speculate any spirituall matters.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., iv. 87. Whensoever it will speculate truth itself, it will not then listen to the several clamours and votes of these rude senses.
1678. Norris, Misc. (1699), 157. It being … against the Nature of Understanding to make that truth which it speculates.
1816. Pamphleteer, VIII. 65. Fables are theological which employ nothing corporeal, but speculate the very essences of the gods.
c. With obj. clause introduced by how, what, when.
1856. N. Brit. Rev., XXVI. 192. When the company were speculating what lost production of the human mind was most to be regretted.
1857. J. Hamilton, Less. from Gt. Biogr., 296. They were speculating how the stone might be moved away.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, xi. She had begun to speculate when Glynn would join them.
d. To talk (a matter) over conjecturally.
1862. Dickens, Somebody’s Luggage, i. Speculating it over with the Mistress, she informed me that the luggage had been advertised.
2. To look or gaze at (something); to examine, inspect, or observe closely or narrowly. ? Obs.
1616. J. Lane, Contn. Sqr.’s T., VI. 298. The troopes of horse, before, behind, theare, heere speculates all approches, farr and neere.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 66. If he frequented their company it was only to speculate his own Baby in their Eyes.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), III. 350. Every morning he speculated his urine.
1805. Spirit Public Jrnls., IX. 244. Louis shall hold a mirror to thine eyes, Wherein thy downfal thou mayst speculate.
b. spec. To observe (the stars, heaven, etc.), esp. as an object of study.
1630. Shirley, Grateful Servant, II. i. I shall neuer eat garlike with Diogenes in a Tub, and speculate the Starres without a shirt.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 7. One contemplates them [i.e., the heavens, etc.] devoutly, and constantly;… the other speculates them superstitiously.
1707. Athenian Sport (title-p.), The Eye beholds as much when it looks on a Shilling, as when it speculates the whole Heaven.
1890. J. H. Stirling, Philos. & Theol., iv. 73. The sun and moon, which, he [Anaxagoras] said, he was born to speculate.
† 3. intr. To exercise spiritual contemplation.
c. 1630. C. Lever, in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), II. 523. Thy heauenly presence is a faire aspect; There doth my soule delight to speculate.
4. To engage in thought or reflection, esp. of a conjectural or theoretical nature, on or upon a subject.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., ii. Wks. 1686, III. 18. For who would not more readily learn … to draw by setting a good Picture before him, than by merely speculating upon the laws of Perspective.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 67. It [a child] is all this time storing its mind with objects, upon the nature, the properties, and the relations of which future curiosity may speculate.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. 1898, II. 7. I certainly take my full share … in speculating on what has been done, or is doing, on the public stage.
1845. Bailey, Festus (ed. 2), 138. Here we can speculate on policy, On social manners, fashions, and the news.
1871. C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. 121. Taxation and philosophy now began to speculate, at the same time, upon the weights and measures of England.
b. Const. about, as to, concerning, etc.
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. viii. 133. Nearly every body whose death was worth speculating about.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 217. Adaptations, concerning the nature, object, and extent of which it would be equally foolish and impossible to speculate.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. v. 38. While speculating as to the wisdom of entering the cavern.
5. To engage in the buying and selling of commodities or effects in order to profit by a rise or fall in their market value; to undertake, to take part or invest in, a business enterprise or transaction of a risky nature in the expectation of considerable gain. Also const. on or in.
1785. Jefferson, Corr., Wks. 1859, I. 472. Should any attempt be made to speculate on these papers [i.e., the public stocks].
1787. [implied in Speculating vbl. sb.].
1822. Byron, Lett. to Ellice, 12 June. I do not go there to speculate, but to settle.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, i. Would he be what he is if he hadn’t speculated?
transf. 1841. Thackeray, Gt. Hoggarty Diamond, xiii. I was not over well pleased that his lordship should think me capable of speculating in any way on my wife’s beauty.
b. In the game of speculation (q.v.).
1850. Bohn’s Handbk. Games (1864), 325. The eldest hand shews the uppermost card, which if a trump, the company may speculate on or bid for. Ibid. The company speculating as they please, till all are discovered.
c. To count or reckon on something as probable or certain. rare–1.
1797. Coleridge, Lett. (1895), I. 215. You might safely speculate on twenty pounds a year or more from your compositions.
d. trans. To invest (money) in an enterprise that involves considerable risk.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 2 Dec., 7/1. They were compelled to own the cars privately because the railways would not speculate the money.
Hence Speculated ppl. a., Speculating vbl. sb. (also attrib.) and ppl. a.
1787. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 304. The speculating plan concerted between the British in Canada and New Yorkers was now well known.
1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, XXV. 332. We do not bring our learned powers To vex its speculating hours.
1820. Scott, Monast., xxxi. A rash … interpretation of the Scriptures, wrested according to the private opinion of each speculating heretic.
1865. Bushnell, Vicar. Sacr., i. (1868), 49. How often has the innate sense of justice in men been mocked by the speculated satisfactions of justice.
