Obs. Forms: 4–7 spece (5 speche), 4, 6 spiece, 7 speece. [ad. OF. espece (mod.F. espèce) sort, kind, appearance, etc., ad. L. speciēs SPECIES. Cf. SPICE sb.]
1. Appearance, form, likeness.
a. 1325. Prose Psalter xlix. 2. Fram þe sonne arisyng vn-to þe going a-doune, þe spece of his fairnes is of Syon.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xix. 70. The soule of my fader Anchisis … apyereth byfore me vndre the speche of a terryble ymage.
2. a. A spice; an aromatic vegetable condiment. b. A medical substance; a drug.
a. 1300. Body & Soul, in MS. Laud 108, fol. 200. Ȝwere ben þine cokes snelle, þat scholden gon greiþe þi mete With speces [written spetes] swete for to smelle?
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 325. With diverse spieces The fleissh … Sche takth, and makth therof a sewe.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 15. Nether let him eat any fishes nor speces.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 177. Take … the speces of diamarg[ariton] frigid., camphor, of each 2 drachmes.
3. A species, kind, sort or variety.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 8319. Ȝyt ys þyr a specyal spece Þat doþ leccherye klymbe by a grece.
1357. Lay Folks Catech., 527 (T.). Of this syn comes sum sere speces.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 114. As for wisdom, it is in Grece, Wher is apropred thilke spiece.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 219. More-ouer we sene that euery beest hath his propyr Sowle, and his Propyr body. Of thes Speces neuer faillyth.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), I. i. 3 b/2. Nytree, Whyche is a spece of Salte puryfycatyff.
c. 1530. L. Cox, Rhet. (1899), 44. These thre laste be properly callid speces or kindes of oracions.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, III. i. Tempest shall grow hoarse, Loud thunder dumb, and every speece of storm, Laid in the lap of listening nature, hush’d.
1647. M. Hudson, Div. Right Govt., II. ix. 137. Thus much briefly of the nature and spece’s of Fundamentall Honour; the other spece of Honour opposite to this is Symbolicall.
4. A part, portion or share; a touch or trace.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 904. A bacheler … born y þe lond of Grece; Of þat blod he hadde a spece, ffor his ffader was Gregeys.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark ii. 33. Certain of Johns disciples … were attached with a spiece of humain enuie, for that [etc.].
