v. Also fore-. [f. FOR- pref.1 + SPEAK. OE. had forspecan to deny.]
1. trans. To bewitch, charm. Obs. exc. Sc.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 173/1. For-spekyn, or charmyn, fascino.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 115.
| Mak. I telle you, syrs, hark: hys noys was broken. | |
| Sythen told me a clerk, that he was forspokyn. |
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., III. ii. 45. They [the witches] saie they have made a reall bargaine with the divell, killed a cow, bewitched butter, infeebled a child, forespoken hir neighbour, &c.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 296. Whosoeuer shall enchant or fore-speake any corne or fruits of the earth.
a. 1658. Ford, etc., Witch Edmonton, II. i.
| Urging, | |
| That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so) | |
| Forespeaks their Cattle, doth bewitch their Corn, | |
| Themselves, their Servants, and their Babes at nurse. |
1895. [see below].
† 2. To forbid, renounce. Obs.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Abdicere … to forspeake: to cast of or renounce.
1579. J. Stubbes, Gaping Gulf, E. viij b. If he should speede (which God forspeake) yet must he com to a people that loues hym not nor hys trayne.
† 3. To speak against, speak evil of. Obs.
a. 1300. [see below].
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. vii. 3.
| Cleo. Thou hast forspoke my being in these warres, | |
| And say’st it is not fit. |
1611. W. Sclater, Key (1629), 84. The fashion of most men, in such iudgements, is to cry out of ill tongues that have fore-spoken them.
Hence Forspeaking vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; Forspoken ppl. a. Also Forspeaker, a witch.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter, xliii. 17.
| Fra steven of up-braidand and for-spekand; | |
| Fra face of fa and filighand. |
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 582. Facimia, a forspeker or a tylyystere.
1483. Cath. Angl., 138/2. A Forspekynge, fascinacio.
1570. T. Norton, trans. Nowel’s Catech. (1853), 127. They make themselves guilty of a most heinous and outrageous offence, which abuse the name of God in bannings, in cursings, in enchantments, in forespeakings, or in any other manner of superstition.
1895. D. J. Robertson, Among the Kelpers, in Longm. Mag., XXVII. Nov., 39. She told him he had been ‘forespoken,’ i.e. bewitched, by a woman then dead, and made him drink water mixed with earth from the ‘fore-speaker’s’ grave.
