speziell

Forms

speziell (strong nominative masculine singular spezieller, comparative spezieller, superlative am speziellsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is a remodelling of older spezial, given an ending that imitates French at the beginning of the 18th century; it replaced the older adjective when used on its own.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary compares generell, formed in the same way from older general.^[1] The older adjective is borrowed from Latin speciālis (“particular, peculiar”), recorded in German from the end of the 15th century, at first in compounds.^[2][4] Like French spécial, it goes back to the Latin word, a derivative of speciēs (“appearance, kind”) (see Spezies), from the stem of speciō (“to look at”).^[4][2] The older form survives as the first element of compounds such as Spezialgebiet and Spezialarzt.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DFWB has its first record in 1718, in wenn ich sehr speciell gehen … wolte “if I wanted to go into great detail”, and in 1724 one was to gather spezielle Nachricht “particular information” about a country.^[3] The meaning was “particular, individual, special”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Lavater wrote in 1772 of “the special and individual fates” of a person, and Schiller of a speciellere Beziehung in a letter to Goethe of 8 July 1796.^[6] The strengthened ganz speziell is recorded from 1728, and meine ganz speciellen Freunde from 1796, often ironically.^[5] From the early 19th century speziell had fully replaced spezial as an independent adjective, often as an adverb, but it is never used in compounds.^[3] Since the early 20th century auf dein Spezielles! has been a colloquial toast, first recorded in 1906.^[3][5]

From Spezial “close friend” (second half of the 18th century), older specialer Freund, came the Upper German short form Spezi.^[2][4] Related loanwords are Spezialität (early 17th century), and spezialisieren and Spezialist (both first half of the 19th century).^[2]

Timeline

• End of the 15th century – spezial is first recorded, mostly in compounds.^[2]
• 1718 – First record of speziell.^[3][5]
• 1728 – die gantz speciellen Titul.^[5]
• 1772 – Lavater writes of speciellen fates.^[6]
• 1796 – meine ganz speciellen Freunde, often ironic.^[5]
• Early 19th century – speziell fully replaces spezial as an independent adjective.^[3]
• 1906 – First record of the toast auf dein Spezielles.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. special, particular, specific; aimed at a particular case, not general: Für diese Arbeit braucht man ein spezielles Werkzeug.^[7][1]
2. (ironic) mein ganz spezieller Freund: someone one does not like at all.^[7]
3. (colloquial) Auf dein Spezielles!: to your health!^[7][3]
4. im Speziellen (chiefly Switzerland): in particular.^[7]

Adverb

1. especially, specifically: eine speziell für ältere Menschen entwickelte Software;^[7] (colloquial) du speziell “you of all people”.^[7]

Related words

• spezial
• Spezi
• Spezialität
• spezialisieren
• Spezialist
• Spezies
• generell

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
4. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 2202
7. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag