Other forms: specks
A speck is a tiny spot or particle. A speck of dust, not a speck, a speck on the horizon.
It is the smallest visible amount of something, which is why not a speck means none at all. A speck in the eye is the image in the parable about the mote and the beam, where the point is that people notice the small fault and miss the large one.
1nounspeckA tiny spot or particle.
“There was a tiny speck of paint on his glasses that he couldn't rub off.”
speck is a particle.
Old English specca, a small spot or stain, from a Germanic root. Speckled is a relative.
Proto-Germanic
*sprakô — spark
Old English
specca — small spot, stain
Middle English
spekke
English, today
speck
From Middle English spekke, from Old English specca (“small spot, stain”), from the same ultimate source as Proto-Germanic sprakô (“spark”). Cognate with Low German spaken (“to spot with wet”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA