Before the adoption of "luck" at the end of the Middle Ages, Old English and Middle English expressed the notion of "good fortune" with the word "speed" (Middle English "spede", Old English "spēd"); "speed" besides "good fortune" had the wider meaning of "prosperity, profit, "; it is not associated with the notion of probability or chance but rather with that of fate or divine help; a bestower of success can also be called "speed", as in "Christ be our speed" (William Robertson, "Phraseologia generalis", 1693).