general, the art or act of expressing a person's thoughts by means of articulate sounds, which we call words. See Language, Grammar, Reading, and Oratory, part iv.

Speed (John), an eminent English historian, was born at Farington, in Cheshire, in 1542. He was by profession a taylor, and freeman of the company of merchant-taylors in the city of London. In 1666, he published his Theatre of Great Britain, which was afterwards reprinted in folio, under the title of the Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. His Genealogies of Scripture were first bound up with the Bible in 1611, when the first edition of the present translation was printed. In 1614 appeared his History of Great Britaine, which has been translated into Latin; and in 1616 he published his Cloud of Witnesses, in octavo. He lived in marriage 57 years with his wife, by whom he had twelve sons and six daughters; and died in 1629. He was interred in the church of St Giles's, Cripplegate, London, where a monument was erected to his memory.

Speedwell, in botany. See Veronica.