speer

¹

Or speir,

[speer]

verb (used with or without object)

1. Chiefly Scot.,  to ask; inquire.

Speer

²

[speer, shpeyr]

noun

1. Albert 1905–81, German Nazi leader: appointed by Hitler as official Nazi architect.

Word History and Origins

Origin of speer¹

before 900; Middle English speren, spiren, Old English spyrian to make tracks, trace, ask about; cognate with German spüren, Old Norse spyrja to ask; akin to spoor

Example Sentences

Speer didn’t share his predecessor’s doubts.

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Speer was given a 20-year prison sentence while Fritz Sauckel, Hitler’s general plenipotentiary for labor mobilization, was hanged for almost exactly the same crimes.

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Speer’s reputation as a “good Nazi” was enhanced by his relentlessly self-justifying memoirs.

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About his famous confidence when seated face-to-face with intimidating subjects — one interview was with Albert Speer, Hitler’s chief architect and minister of armaments — Ophuls was characteristically candid and self-effacing.

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“He was so fantastically cooperative,” he said of Speer.

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