To suggest, indicate, or be a sign of something; or to order or reserve something in advance (archaic).
From Middle English 'bespeken,' combining 'be-' prefix with 'speak.' Originally meant to 'speak out' or 'speak for,' evolving to mean 'to indicate' or 'to arrange beforehand' by the 1500s.
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen uses 'bespeak'—when Elizabeth's manners 'bespeak' a woman of sense, she means the behavior indicates or suggests this quality, a meaning that survives mostly in formal or literary English today.
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