To speed up or cause to move quickly; to hasten or accelerate something.
From 'be-' (to make or cause) combined with 'speed' (to move quickly). This formed a causative verb meaning to make something go faster, following the productive be- verbal pattern in Middle and Early Modern English.
Causative verbs show English's flexibility—'bespeed' means 'make speed' while 'speed' alone means 'go fast,' and we still do this today with pairs like 'kill/make dead' or 'build/make constructed,' revealing deep patterns in how verbs work.
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