ursprache (n.)

中古英语 speche，源自古英语 spæc，意为“说话的行为； 发出有声音的清晰声音的能力； 说话的方式； 陈述，讲述，叙述； 正式的表达； 语言。” 这是古英语 spræc 的变体，源自原始日耳曼语 *sprek-， *spek-（也是丹麦语 sprog，古撒克逊语 spraca，古弗里斯兰语 spreke，荷兰语 spraak，古高地德语 sprahha，德语 Sprache 的来源）。参见 speak（动词）。

这些 spr- 形式在英语中已经在1200年前灭绝。大约在1200年左右，指的是书面文字。意为“向听众发表的演讲”记录于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一半声誉去追求思想自由的人，

无论他们的事业坚强还是脆弱，思想自由至上，

愿意冒着无论上流社会还是下层社会对他们的报复，

让市井之徒对他们的威胁毫不在意。

[詹姆斯·罗素·洛威尔，《A Fable for Critics》，1848]

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战斗的信仰时，他们可能会相信比他们自己行为的根基更加坚定的终极善是通过思想自由贸易来实现的 - 真理的最佳检验是思想在市场竞争中被接受的能力，而真理是他们的愿望安全实现的唯一基础。无论如何，这是我们宪法的理论。这是一个实验，就像生活本身就是一个实验。...我认为我们应该永远警惕试图限制我们厌恶并认为会带来死亡的观点的企图，除非它们对法律的合法和紧迫目的构成了即将发生的干涉，需要立即采取措施来拯救国家。[奥利弗·温德尔·霍姆斯，反对《Abrams v. United States》的异议，1919]

前缀意为“原始的，最早的，原始的”，源自德语 ur- “出自，原始的”，源自原始日耳曼语 *uz- “出”，源自印欧语 *ud- “向上，出”（见 out（adv.））。最初只在从德语借来的词中使用（例如 ursprache “假设的原始语言”）； 自20世纪中期以来，成为英语中的常用前缀。还可参见 protoplasm 下的 Urschleim 和 Pilsner 下的 Urquell。