[Pa. pple. of SPEAK v.]
As the second element in combs., spoken is used in the sense of ‘speaking’ or ‘given to speaking’ in a specified way, as in blunt-, broad-, civil-, fine-, out-, plain-spoken, etc. Most of these date from the 17th cent. or later, but fair-spoken is found in 1460. ON. and Icel. talaðr (pa. pple. of tala to speak) is similarly used, even without a qualifying term.
1. With preps.: That is or has been spoken about, of, to, etc.
1595. Drake’s Voy. (Hakl. Soc.), 24. The … adventure she had been at in the glorious spoken-of jorney.
1865. ‘Annie Thomas,’ On Guard, xxi. She may not only speak, but may think, with affection … of the spoken about.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., x. 207. The speaker and the spoken-to.
2. Of language, words, etc.: Uttered in speech; oral. Also, colloquial as distinguished from literary.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 370. To enable us to appreciate the value of tones, whether they be the modulations of music, or the articulation of a spoken language.
1867. Trans. Philol. Soc., Suppl. 1. On Palaeotype, or the representation of spoken sounds … by means of the ancient types.
1885. Gladstone, in Westm. Gaz., 8 June, 4/2. Reminding me that spoken words may fulfil a purpose higher than we mostly dream of.
b. Expressed, declared, made known by speech or utterance.
1851. Brimley, Ess., Wordsw., 164. We should like to have had some record of spoken feelings.
1879. B. Taylor, Stud. Germ. Lit., 204. There is a vast difference between the silent and the spoken protest.
c. ellipt. Words that are spoken (in place of being sung) in connection with a song or other musical performance; a part of this nature.
1855. Dickens, Mut. Fr., IV. xvi. A comic song … with ‘Spoken’ in it.
1900. H. Lawson, On Track, 10. Thus warmed up, Pinter starts with an explanatory ‘spoken’ to the effect that the song he is about to sing illustrates some of the little ways of woman.
Hence Spokenness, the fact or quality of having been spoken or uttered.
1805. Monthly Mag., XX. 513/1. The idea of spokenness has been progressively detached from the word ‘language.’
