non-speechn.adj.
/nɒnˈspiːtʃ/, U.S. /ˈnɑnˈspitʃ/ A. n.
Absence of speech; muteness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > inaudibility > [noun] > silence
stillnessc1050
silence?c1225
clum1340
stillhead1340
quiet?c1450
whust1558
husht1566
muteness1590
silency1595
still1608
hushtness1609
whistness1609
silentness1664
noiselessness1834
soundlessness1834
non-speech1863
shush1954
deafening silence1968
ciunas1986
1863 C. C. Clarke Shakespeare-characters ii. 48 The poet has ingeniously conveyed to us the impression that hers is a voluntary non-speech,—a silence arising from preference to hear her cousin.
1911 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 8 193 If I now have an experience that correlates non-speech..with certain anatomical characters which also exclude some of the essential marks of man, [etc.].
1997 Renaissance Q. 50 427 Vertu's description of what sort of speech he should speak verges on non-speech.
B. adj.
That does not belong to speech; (also) that does not involve speech (rare).
ΚΠ
1943 K. L. Pike Phonetics ii. 33 Apart from exemplifying speech sounds by showing the manner of their production, nonspeech sounds may be used to clarify the application of a phonetic alphabet.
1954 F. G. Cassidy Robertson's Devel. Mod. Eng. iv. 54 The phonetician..must include the entire range of speech sounds... Pike would have him investigate non-speech sounds too.
1992 Which? Oct. 41/3 The non-speech alarms communicate with a centre by signals only.
1996 Amer. Scientist Mar. 111/2 An audio formatting language, called AFL, renders the parsed text using both speech and nonspeech sounds.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1863