speechless
adjUS /ˈspiːt͡ʃ.lɪs/
Etymology From Middle English specheles, from Old English sprǣċlēas (“speechless; without the power of speak”), from Proto-Germanic *sprēkalausaz, equivalent to speech + -less. Cognate with West Frisian sprakeleas (“speechless”), Dutch sprakeloos (“speechless”), German Low German spraaklos (“speechless”), German sprachlos (“speechless”).
1
Not speaking; not knowing what to say; silent, especially due to surprise, amazement, etc.; wordless.
- When he walked into his surprise birthday party, he was completely speechless.
- The attack was so unwarranted and delivered with such venom that his unpreparedness for it left him speechless.1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 62:
2
Archaic Synonym of unspeakable.
- Immortal Pleaſures round my ſwimming Eyes did dance, And ſpeechleſs Joys, in whoſe ſweet Tumult toſt, I thought my Breath, and my new Being loſt.1690, John Dryden, The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man, J.M., page 14:
- O Mother Earth, O Sun that makest clean, What poison have I heard, what speechless sin !1902, Gilbert Murray, Euripides, Longmans, Green, and co., page 32:
- Derived terms
- speechlessly, speechlessness