specialty

specialty

English

Alternative forms

• speciality (British / Commonwealth spelling)

Etymology

From Old French specialte, especialte, from Latin specialitas.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈspɛʃəlti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

specialty (plural specialties) (American spelling)

1. That in which one specializes; a chosen expertise or talent.

   They cook well overall, but their true specialty is pasta.

   • 1858, Charles Kingsley, “My Winter-Garden,” Fraser’s Magazine, Volume 57, p. 410,

     Even men of boundless knowledge, like Humboldt, must have had once their speciality, their pet subject, or they would have, strictly speaking, no knowledge at all.

2. A product that originates in and is characteristic of a place.
3. (obsolete) Particularity.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:

     The specialty of rule hath been neglected:
     And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
     Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.

4. A particular or peculiar case.
5. An attribute or quality peculiar to a species.
6. (law) A contract or obligation under seal; a contract by deed; a writing, under seal, given as security for a debt particularly specified.
   • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     Let specialties be therefore drawne betweene vs,
     That couenants may be kept on either hand.

   • 1812, Joseph Chitty, A Treatise on Pleading, with a Collection of Practical Precedents, and Notes Thereon, 2nd American edition, edited by Thomas Day, New York, Volume 2, section 456, note c,

     […] in a plea to an action of debt on specialty, it is still necessary to show that the debt on which the judgment was recovered was a specialty, or to aver that the judgment was recovered before the defendant had notice of the plaintiff’s demand.

Related terms

• specialist
• subspecialty
• subspecialist

Translations

that in which one specializes

Arabic: اِخْتِصَاص‎ m (iḵtiṣāṣ) Egyptian Arabic: اختصاص‎ m (exteṣāṣ) Armenian: մասնագիտություն (hy) (masnagitutʿyun) Bulgarian: специа́лност (bg) f (speciálnost) Catalan: especialitat (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 專業 (zh), 专业 (zh) (zhuānyè), 專長 (zh), 专长 (zh) (zhuāncháng) (special skill), 擅長 (zh), 擅长 (zh) (shàncháng) (special skill) Czech: specialita (cs) f Dutch: specialiteit (nl) f, terrein (nl) n Finnish: erikoisuus (fi), erikoisala, spesialiteetti French: spécialité (fr) f German: Spezialität (de) f Greek: ειδικότητα (el) f (eidikótita) Hungarian: különlegesség (hu), specialitás (hu) Icelandic: sérréttur m Italian: specialità (it) f Japanese: 専門 (ja) (せんもん, semmon) Korean: 특산물 (ko) (teuksanmul) Norwegian: spesialitet Persian: تخصص‎ (fa) (taxassos) Polish: specjalność (pl) f, specjalizacja (pl) f Portuguese: especialidade (pt) f Russian: специа́льность (ru) f (speciálʹnostʹ), специализа́ция (ru) f (specializácija) Spanish: especialidad (es) f Swedish: specialitet (sv) c, specialité c Tagalog: katangian Ukrainian: спеціа́льність (uk) f (speciálʹnistʹ)

product that is characteristic of a place

Swedish: specialitet (sv) c, specialité c Vietnamese: đặc sản

particularity — see particularity

particular or peculiar case

Bulgarian: особен случай m (osoben slučaj) Finnish: erikoistapaus Tagalog: katangian

attribute or quality peculiar to a species

Bulgarian: особеност (bg) f (osobenost) Finnish: erityispiirre Tagalog: katangian

legal: contract or obligation under seal