spak

simple past tense of speak
- 1806, Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish border (3rd ed) (1 of 3)‎^[1]:
  Then spak the lord, hight Hamilton, And to the nobil king said he, "My sovereign prince, sum counsell take, First at your nobilis, syne at me.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, David Balfour, Second Part‎^[2]:
  But whan he spak, it was mair in sorrow than in anger.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1898, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Scottish sketches‎^[3]:
  And I'll do this messenger justice; he laid down no law to me, he only spak o' the duty laid on his own conscience; but my conscience said 'Amen' to his--that's about it.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1896, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Adventures in Criticism‎^[4]:
  Ful wel she song the service divyne, Entuned in hir nose ful semely; And Frensh she spak ful faire and fetisly, After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, For Frensh of Paris was to hir unknowe..."
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1919, Frederic Moorman, More Tales of the Ridings‎^[5]:
  Them was t' truest words he iver spak, an' shoo would hae been muck-cheap if I'd gien a million pund for her."
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1857, Various, The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV.‎^[6]:
  I went unto her mother, and I argued and I fleech'd, I spak o' love and honesty, and mair and mair beseech'd; But she was deaf to a' my grief, she wadna look on me; O poverty!
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1904, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Merry Men‎^[7]:
  Het as he was, he took a kind o' cauld grue in the marrow o' his banes; but up he spak for a' that; an' says he: 'My friend, are you a stranger in this place?'
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Swedish edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Old Norse spakr (“wise, mild”).

Adjective edit

spak (comparative spakare, superlative spakast)

powerless, tired, obedient, tame, calm, easy, reasonable; of a person or animal that used to resist, but has given up the fight; of calm water
spak som ett lamm
tame as a lamb

Declension edit

Inflection of spak
Indefinite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative²
Common singular	spak	spakare	spakast
Neuter singular	spakt	spakare	spakast
Plural	spaka	spakare	spakast
Masculine plural³	spake	spakare	spakast
Definite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Masculine singular¹	spake	spakare	spakaste
All	spaka	spakare	spakaste
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic

Synonyms edit

Related terms edit

Etymology 2 edit

From Old Swedish spaker (“rod, stick, lever”), from Middle Low German spake, cognate with Danish spag (“spoke”), Dutch spaak (“spoke”), and English spoke.

Noun edit

spak c

a lever used to control some machine; a lever, a rod, a handle, a stick, a joystick, a control
Han drog i spaken
He pulled the lever

Nazisterna sitter vid spakarna
The Nazis are in control