spécificité

Forms

spécificité f (plural spécificités)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French spécifique + -ité, a learned derivative.^[2][1][3] The adjective is from Late Latin specificus, an adjective drawn from speciēs (“kind, species”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in medicine in 1832, in Raymond's dictionary, of a remedy: the property of acting on one particular disorder.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

From medicine the word passed in 1836 to the general sense “the state or quality of being specific”.^[2] The Académie recorded it in 1836 for the fixed character and constant cause of a disease, and in 1842 for the quality of what belongs exclusively to one class of things.^[5] Littré still gave it as a learned term, applied to the particular characters of an anatomical element, to the cause that makes a disease what it is and to the action of a drug on one lesion.^[6]

In the 20th century biology added spécificité parasitaire, the tie of a parasite to a single host species (recorded by Larousse in 1964).^[5] In the humanities it came to mean the distinctive character of an art, a people or a style, as in Malraux (1951).^[2]

Timeline

• 1832 – Raymond uses spécificité d'un remède in medicine.^[2][4]
• 1834 – The Grand Robert dates the word to this year.^[7]
• 1836 – The general sense “quality of what is specific” is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1842 – The Académie records the sense “quality of what belongs to one class only”.^[5]
• 1964 – Larousse records spécificité parasitaire.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of what is specific, what belongs to one thing or kind alone, its distinctive character: perdre sa spécificité.^[8][9][2]
2. (medicine) The character of a disease whose signs are constant and whose cause is always the same, also the property of a drug that acts on one particular lesion.^[9][6][5]
3. (immunology) The capacity of an antigen to react only with the antibody it calls forth.^[8]
4. (biology) Spécificité parasitaire: the restriction of a parasite to a single host species.^[5]

Related words

• spécifique
• spécifier
• spécification
• espèce

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
5. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)