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particular

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /pəˈtɪk.jə.lə/, US /pɚˈtɪk.jə.lɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English particuler,[2][3] borrowed from Old French particuler (modern French particulier) and directly borrowed from Late Latin particulāris (“of or concerning a part”),[4][3] from Latin particula (“little part, particle”),[4][2] a diminutive of pars (“a part”) (genitive partis),[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *pere- (“to grant, allot”).[4] The spelling with -ar was conformed to Latin in the 16th century.[3][5] It is related to particle and part.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Belonging to a part, not the whole; partial”: before 1387, in Trevisa,[3] 1387 in the OED;[6] “relating to a single definite thing or person” is from about 1386.[6]

Semantic evolution

“Private, personal” is from 1442 (1456 in the OED), now obsolete.[3][6] “Peculiar, standing out from the ordinary” is by the late 15th century.[4] The noun meant a part of the body in 1392[3] and an individual feature or circumstance probably before 1425;[3] “a single instance” is from the 1530s, and particulars, small details, from about 1600.[4] In logic a particular proposition is one stated of some members of a class, not all, from 1551.[6] The Particular Baptists, who held Calvin's doctrine of particular redemption, are from 1717.[6] “Precise, fastidious, attentive to details” is from 1814, in the Duke of Wellington's dispatches.[3][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1386 – relating to a single thing.[6]
  • before 1387 – partial.[3]
  • 1392 – noun, a body part.[3]
  • 1442 – private, personal.[3]
  • 1530s – noun, a single instance.[4]
  • c. 1600 – particulars, details.[4]
  • 1814 – fastidious.[3][4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Belonging to one person, group or thing, not general: my particular interest.
  2. Separate and distinct from others; specific.
  3. Unusual; worth noting: of particular importance.
  4. Paying close attention to details; fussy.
  5. (logic) Of a proposition, applying to some but not all members of a class.

Noun

  1. An individual item, fact or detail: the particulars of the case.
  2. (in particular) Especially.

Word family

  • overparticular
  • particularization
  • unparticular
  • particularism
  • particularity
  • particularize
  • particularly
  • particular average
  • universal
  • particle
  • part
  • parcel
  • partial

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press