Forspoken

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Archaic term for something put under a spell by words or charms ; left exhausted or hoarse from having talked for a long time
2. Old-fashioned description of one who has been bewitched through incantation ; wearied or voiceless from excessive speaking
3. Obsolete past participle meaning enchanted by spoken magic ; tired out or rendered hoarse by too much talking

Etymology: Before it described someone under a spell, "forspeak" was a plain Old English verb meaning "to speak in vain", "to speak amiss", or even "to deny". Its root is the prefix "for-", which in Old English often carried a sense of harm or undoing, combined with "speak". So the original idea was speech gone wrong: words spoken badly or pointlessly, rather than words that cast a charm. Over the Middle English period the sense narrowed to "to bewitch", apparently because an ill-judged or malicious utterance came to be imagined as a curse. The word's later meanings, such as being worn out or voiceless from too much talking, grew from the same stem of "speaking to excess" that undoes the speaker. "Forspoken" is the past participle of "forspeak", which is why it reads as a description of someone who has been affected by such speech. It survives today mainly in older or literary writing.