speck

1 of 3

noun (1)

ˈspek 

plural specks

1

: a small discoloration or spot especially from stain or decay

2

: a very small amount : bit

3

: something marked or marred with specks

specked

ˈspekt 

adjective

speck

2 of 3

verb

specked; specking; specks

transitive verb

: to mark (something or someone) with or as if with specks : speckle

High up against the horizon were the huge conical masses of hill … with sombre greenish sides visibly specked with sheep …

—George Eliot

… the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom … had the effect of a real spirit …

—Charlotte Brontë

speck

3 of 3

noun (2)

: a cold-smoked Italian ham that is flavored with herbs and spices such as juniper, black pepper, and garlic

Speck, like prosciutto, is a salt- and air-cured and aged pork hind leg. Unlike prosciutto, speck is cold-smoked, which makes it rare among Italian cured meats.

—Allison Batdorff

Speck is deeply red and more firm in texture than prosciutto. Since it's a cured meat, it can be sliced thin and eaten raw in an antipasti platter, wrapped around sweet fruits, or layered on sandwiches.

—Emma Christensen

Diaphanous sheets of speck and pucks of fried trotters are piled onto picturesque salumi platters.

—Garrett Snyder

By the time Roman agronomist Cato the Elder wrote his famous treatise on agriculture around 160 BC, the techniques for salt-curing ham he describes were well established, the precursor of today's prosciutto and speck.

—Steven Raichlen

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• blotch
• dapple
• dot
• eyespot
• fleck
• mottle
• patch
• pip
• point
• speckle
• splotch
• spot

Verb

• blotch
• dapple
• dot
• fleck
• freckle
• marble
• mottle
• pepper
• shoot
• speckle
• splotch
• spot
• sprinkle
• stipple

Examples of speck in a Sentence

Noun (1)

There was not a speck of dust anywhere.

Soon the balloon was only a speck in the sky.

She writes without a speck of humor.

Verb

dirt that had specked the windows of the factory for ages

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

There were also no visible specks of spices like the Shamrock nog. —Endia Fontanez, The Arizona Republic, 11 Dec. 2024

But a break in the case finally came in 2002 when the Contra Costa County forensic lab matched DNA in Kemp’s hair with the genetic makeup of a speck of blood found on one of Wiltsey’s fingernails. —Jason Green, The Mercury News, 10 Dec. 2024

Verb

The 656-foot vessel, called the Golden Ray, has been lying since early September off a slice of the Georgia coast specked with resorts and sprawling high-dollar homes. —New York Times, 16 Nov. 2019

Now, their territory has fewer than 1,000 residents and consists of about 7,300 acres, with roads wandering through woods specked with modest family homes. —New York Times, 22 June 2018

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English specke, from Old English specca

Verb

derivative of speck entry 1

Noun (2)

borrowed from a regional German (South Tyrol/Alto Adige) form of German Speck "bacon, bacon fat, blubber," going back to Old High German spec, going back to Germanic *spika- (whence also Old English spic "fat meat, bacon," Old Saxon spek, Middle Dutch spec, Old Icelandic spik "blubber"), probably going back to Indo-European *spig-, whence also, from Indo-Iranian *sphig-, Sanskrit sphij-, sphik "hip, buttock," Khotanese phajsai "his rump" (with secondary a from i), Ossetic syʒ/siʒæ "backside, bottom"

Note: The Indo-Iranian etymon has been taken as *sp^(h)h₁-g-, a root extension from the verbal base *speh₁- "thrive, prosper" (see speed entry 1), though this would exclude the connection with Germanic *spika-. Alternatively, both the Germanic and Indo-Iranian have been seen as outcomes of an original paradigm *sphh1i-ég-, *sphh1i-g-ós, with the verb *speh₁- taken as *sp^heh₁i̯-. For details see M. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen, 2. Band, p. 777; J. Rasmussen, Studien zur Morphophonemik der Indogermanischen Grundsprache (Innsbruck, 1989), pp. 38-39, 62; H.W. Bailey, Dictionary of Khotan Saka (Cambridge, 1979), p. 259.

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1975, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

speck

1 of 2 noun

ˈspek 

1

: a small spot or blemish

2

: a very small amount : bit

just a speck more milk

speck

2 of 2 verb

: to make specks on or in