中古英語 speche，源自古英語 spæc，意爲“說話的行爲； 發出有聲音的清晰聲音的能力； 說話的方式； 陳述，講述，敘述； 正式的表達； 語言。” 這是古英語 spræc 的變體，源自原始日耳曼語 *sprek-， *spek-（也是丹麥語 sprog，古撒克遜語 spraca，古弗里斯蘭語 spreke，荷蘭語 spraak，古高地德語 sprahha，德語 Sprache 的來源）。參見 speak（動詞）。
這些 spr- 形式在英語中已經在1200年前滅絕。大約在1200年左右，指的是書面文字。意爲“向聽衆發表的演講”記錄於1580年代。
And I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his present repute for the freedom to think,
And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t' other half for the freedom to speak,
Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store,
Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.
[James Russell Lowell, from "A Fable for Critics," 1848]
我尊敬那些願意放棄一半聲譽去追求思想自由的人，
無論他們的事業堅強還是脆弱，思想自由至上，
願意冒着無論上流社會還是下層社會對他們的報復，
讓市井之徒對他們的威脅毫不在意。
[詹姆斯·羅素·洛威爾，《A Fable for Critics》，1848]
But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas — that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That, at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. ... I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country. [Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., dissent to "Abrams v. United States," 1919]
但當人們意識到時間已經顛覆了許多戰鬥的信仰時，他們可能會相信比他們自己行爲的根基更加堅定的終極善是通過思想自由貿易來實現的 - 真理的最佳檢驗是思想在市場競爭中被接受的能力，而真理是他們的願望安全實現的唯一基礎。無論如何，這是我們憲法的理論。這是一個實驗，就像生活本身就是一個實驗。...我認爲我們應該永遠警惕試圖限制我們厭惡並認爲會帶來死亡的觀點的企圖，除非它們對法律的合法和緊迫目的構成了即將發生的干涉，需要立即採取措施來拯救國家。[奧利弗·溫德爾·霍姆斯，反對《Abrams v. United States》的異議，1919]
