中古英语的 speche 源自古英语的 spæc，意思是“说话的行为；表达清晰声音的能力；说话的方式；陈述、论述、叙述、正式的表达；语言”。它是古英语 spræc 的变体，来自原始日耳曼语的 *sprek- 和 *spek-（同源词还有丹麦语的 sprog，古撒克逊语的 spraca，古弗里斯语的 spreke，荷兰语的 spraak，古高地德语的 sprahha，德语的 Sprache，都意为“语言”）。参见 speak（动词）。
其中的 spr- 形式在英语中到1200年左右已经消亡。大约在1200年时开始专指书面语言。表示“向听众发表演讲”的意思最早出现在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]
我尊敬那些愿意放弃自己一半声誉的人，
为了获得自由思考的权利；
而且，当他思考完毕，无论他的观点是强是弱，
他都会冒险再放弃另一半声誉，为了自由表达，
不在乎人群的报复，
无论那人群是上层社会的精英还是底层民众。
[詹姆斯·拉塞尔·洛威尔，《批评家的寓言》，1848年]
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]
但当人们意识到时间已经颠覆了许多信仰，他们可能会更加相信，最终所追求的善良，只有通过思想的自由交流才能更好地实现——真理的最佳检验，是思想在市场竞争中获得认可的能力，而真理是实现他们愿望的唯一可靠基础。这，至少，是我们宪法的理论。生活本身就是一场实验……我认为，我们必须时刻警惕那些试图压制我们厌恶的、我们认为充满危险的观点表达的行为，除非这些观点迫在眉睫地威胁到法律的合法和紧迫目的，迫使我们立即制止，以拯救国家。[奥利弗·温德尔·霍姆斯，《阿布拉姆斯诉美国案》异议，1919年]
