speculate
verbUK /ˈspɛk.jʊˌleɪt/ · CA, US /ˈspɛk.jəˌleɪt/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin speculātus, perfect active participle of speculor (“to watch, observe, examine, spy”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from specula (“a watchtower”), ultimately from speciō (“to look at”).
1
Obsolete To think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to consider, to deliberate or cogitate.
- It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 13, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
2
To make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture.
- We can speculate that in many instances the sharks are not feeding on their victims, but only in a few cases can we guess what they are doing.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 171:
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- Some preliminary legal arrangements were made, but the scheme proceeded no further, as the various local authorities concerned were unwilling to speculate public funds on what was, even at that date, a will o' the wisp.1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 345:
4
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences To anticipate which branch of code will be chosen and execute it in advance.
- Derived terms
- misspeculate, overspeculate, speculatist, unspeculated, unspeculating
- Related terms
- species, spectacle, spectacular, speculation, speculative, speculator