| 释义 |
specific, a. and n.|spɛˈsɪfɪk, spə-|
Also 7 specifique, 7–8 -ick.
[ad. med.L. specific-us, f. speci-ēs species: see -fic. Hence also F. spécifique, It. specifico, Sp. and Pg. especifico.]
A. adj.
1. a. Having a special determining quality.
a1631Donne Poems (1912) 194 For, God no such specifique poyson hath As kills we know not how. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 72 Which sentence is..true..of all parts that naturally exist in any specifique body. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 59 Bones are valuable as a specific manure, because they contain phosphate of lime.
†b. Having the qualities of a species. Obs.
1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 129 Man is not at once an Individuum and a specifique Individuum.
2. a. Of qualities, properties, effects, etc.: Specially or peculiarly pertaining to a certain thing or class of things and constituting one of the characteristic features of this.
c1650Denham Of Prudence 16 That thou to Truth the perfect way mayst know, To thee all her specific forms I'll show. 1665Phil. Trans. I. 48 Plants and other Medicinal things, that have specifique Vertues. 1712Addison Spect. No. 409 ⁋5 The distinguishing Perfections, or, if I may be allowed to call them so, the Specifick Qualities of the Author whom he peruses. 1744Berkeley Siris §87 The specific taint or peculiar cause of the malady. 1782Phil. Trans. LXXII. 196 The different portions of elementary fire contained in such substance, and absorbed by it,..and hence called its specific fire. 1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 150 note, The specific operation of mercury on the constitution. 1837P. Keith Bot. Lex. 139 The primitive and specific molecule proper to each organ pre-exists already in the infant embryo. 1863E. V. Neale Anal. Th. & Nat. 36 Between these unities of quantity there exist relations independent of their specific magnitudes. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 503 Plants, in which the demarcation of the annual rings is constantly absent as a specific peculiarity.
b. specific difference: see difference n. 4 c.
1649Bulwer Pathomyot. i. vi. 32 Al actions equally proceed from the Soul, but receive their Specifique difference from the instruments. 1697tr. Burgersdicius' Logic ii. ii. 6 A perfect Definition consists of the next Genus and Specifick Difference. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. xxii. 282 It was necessary to find some specific difference between them. 1840Carlyle Heroes iii. (1904) 82 Where there is no specific difference, as between round and square, all definition must be more or less arbitrary. 1861Mill Utilit. v. (1874) 74 This feature in the case..constitutes the specific difference between justice, and generosity.
c. Peculiar to, characteristic of, something.
1667Waterhouse Fire Lond. 9 The mediation of concurring circumstances specifique to that Issue. 1874Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece 251 Their style..is specific to Italy in the middle of the fifteenth century. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 519 Ulcers in the stomach specific of these affections may arise.
d. Physics. (i) Of or designating a dimensionless number equal to the ratio of the value of a property of a given substance to the value of the same property of some reference substance (as water) or of vacuum under the same conditions, so providing a relative value for comparison with different substances, as specific gravity (see gravity 4 c); specific heat (see heat n. 2 d); specific inductive capacity = dielectric constant s.v. dielectric a. 2 b; specific viscosity, the difference between the viscosity of a solution of a given concentration and that of the pure solvent, divided by the viscosity of the pure solvent.
1838M. Faraday in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CXXVIII. 33, I feel satisfied that the experiments altogether fully prove the existence of a difference between dielectrics as to their power of favouring an inductive action through them; which difference may..be expressed by the term specific inductive capacity. 1918Physical Rev. XII. 50 One arm was then filled with water, and the other with a mixture of water and ethyl alcohol, the specific inductive capacity of which was known. 1935Jrnl. Physical Chem. XXXIX. 157 Staudinger later adopted the term ‘specific viscosity’, for the quantity ηr-i. 1944[see permittivity]. 1959K. Henney Radio Engin. Handbk. (ed. 5) iv. 2 The dielectric constant K of an insulating material is the ratio of the capacitance Cz of a capacitor using the material as the dielectric to the capacitance Ca using air as the dielectric... This property of the material is sometimes called inductivity or specific inductive capacity. 1966M. L. Miller Struct. Polymers v. 206 At the hightest rate of shear used in these experiments, the reduced specific viscosity was independent of concentration.
(ii) Of or designating a physical quantity that is referred to a unit of mass, volume, or other measure in order to form a number independent of the properties of the particular system studied, and so measuring an inherent property or characteristic that can be scaled to describe a given system or used as an indicator of the effect of an action or process, as specific acoustic impedance (see impedance 2); specific activity, the activity of a given radioisotope per unit mass; specific charge, the ratio of the charge of an ion or sub-atomic particle to its mass; specific conductance, specific conductivity, the conductivity of unit length of a material of unit cross-sectional area; the reciprocal of resistivity (see resistivity 1); specific (fuel) consumption, the weight of fuel consumed by an engine per unit time per unit of power or thrust developed; the reciprocal of specific impulse; specific impulse (see impulse n. 2 c); specific ionization, the number of ion pairs produced by an ionizing particle per unit path length; specific refraction, specific refractive constant, a constant relating the refractive index (n) of a material to its density (ρ), given by (n2 - 1)/(ρ(n2 + 2)); specific resistance, specific resistivity = resistivity 1; specific rotation, specific rotary power, the angle through which the plane of polarization of light of a specified wavelength is rotated by passage through a column of an optically active substance of given length (usu. 10 cm.) and at unit concentration; specific surface, the surface area per unit volume of a finely-divided substance; specific thrust = specific impulse above; specific volume, the volume of a substance per unit mass; the reciprocal of density.
In mod. use, there is a tendency to restrict the application of specific to quantities that are referred to unit mass. Accordingly, alternative terms are being advocated to replace those that do not conform to this narrow definition, as conductivity for specific conductance and specific conductivity, relative density for specific gravity, specific heat capacity (which is referred to unit mass) for specific heat, dielectric constant or relative permittivity for specific inductive capacity, and resistivity for specific resistance and specific resistivity.
1938Nature 18 June 1098/1 The *specific activity of phosphatide P extracted from human blood corpuscles 24 hours after administration of labelled sodium phosphate was found to be 40 times less than that of plasma inorganic P. 1961G. R. Choppin Exper. Nuclear Chem. xi. 186 Much higher levels of specific activity may be counted with no resolving time losses.
1926R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy's Man. Radioactivity i. 6 From the magnitude of the deflexion, combined with similar deflexion experiments in an electric field, we can determine the magnitude of the *specific charge (e/m). 1971D. F. Jackson Concepts of Atomic Physics ii. 18 The specific charge of the lightest known ion, that of hydrogen, is 9·579 × 107 C. kg—1.
1885,1886*Specific conductance [see conductance]. 1924J. R. Partington in H. S. Taylor Treat. Physical Chem. I. xi. 517 In such cells conductivity water with a specific conductance of 0·21 × 10—6 ohm—1 can be kept 12 hours without change. 1958Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics iv. ix. 141/1 In terms of Ohm's law, the defining equation..for specific conductance reduces to κ = I/E..where I is the current and E the potential applied to a centimeter-cube sample of the conductor.
1898C. L. Speyers Text-bk. Physical Chem. ix. 166 A 5% aqueous solution of KCl at 0° has a *specific conductivity of 0·056617 mhos. 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. viii. 558 (caption) Composition of standard bicarbonate waters of varying specific conductivities.
1931Automotive Industries 9 May 726/2 Fig. 10 shows the variation in *specific consumption, power and head temperature of the A70 cylinder, with change in fuel flow. 1946J. W. Vale Aviation Mechanic's Engine Man. ix. 271 At any altitude the specific fuel consumption increases with the increase of power output. 1966J. H. Horlock Axial Flow Turbines viii. 214 For the high by-pass ratios..the specific fuel consumption drops rapidly with increasing turbine temperature.
1932Physical Rev. XXXIX. 884 The *specific ionization thus determined does not exceed 32 ion-pairs per cm, in water⁓saturated air at 68 cm pressure. 1961G. R. Choppin Exper. Nuclear Chem. iii. 23 This specific ionization is a measure of the rate of energy loss.
1940Glasstone Textbk. Physical Chem. viii. 524 The difference between the *specific refractions for two wave lengths, e.g., the Hα and Hγ lines, is called the specific dispersivity.
1899J. Walker Introd. Physical Chem. xiv. 138 Another *specific refractive constant is given by [etc.].
1899J. McCrae tr. Reychler's Outl. Physical Chem. iii. ii. 197 In order to determine the *specific resistance of a solution in ohms, we consider a cubical mass of the solution, the length of whose side is 1 centimetre. 1935Wilson & Dowse tr. Holzer's Foundations Short Wave Therapy 74 The specific resistance is not..a constant, independent of frequency. 1978P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. xxv. 820 The resistance of a material increases with its length l but decreases with its cross-section A... The proportionality coefficient is called the resistivity, or specific resistance.
1958Chambers's Techn. Dict. 716/1 Resistivity, a term denoting volume resistivity, i.e. the resistance of a block of the material in question having unit length and unit cross-sectional area; also called *specific resistivity. 1964R. F. Ficchi Electrical Interference viii. 133, ρ is the specific resistivity of the conductor.
1899J. Walker Introd. Physical Chem. xv. 150 The *specific rotation of lævorotatory oil of turpentine is 37·01°. 1940Glasstone Textbk. Physical Chem. viii. 585 The optical rotatory power of a pure substance, particularly in the liquid state, is generally expressed in terms of its specific rotation or specific rotatory power. 1958Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics vi. vi. 120/1 The molecular rotation is the product of the specific rotation by the molecular weight M of the active material.
1876Jrnl. Chem. Soc. I. 667 It is proposed to substitute αD for the *specific rotatory power obtained by means of the sodium ray. 1899J. Walker Introd. Physical Chem. xiv. 139 The specific rotatory power is usually denoted by the symbol [α].
1924Chem. Abstr. XVIII. 3507 The *specific surfaces of several varieties of charcoal were measured. 1951A. E. Alexander Surface Chem. i. 4 Colloidal materials such as charcoal and clays show adsorption phenomena very markedly owing to their large specific surfaces..which arises [sic] from their fine state of subdivision. 1977Rowell & Farinato in L.-H. Lee Characterization of Metal & Polymer Surfaces II. 399 The specific surface of a monodisperse colloid becomes independent of the number concentration and refractive index of the spherical particles.
1949D. G. Shepherd Introd. Gas Turbine iii. 78 The curves for *specific thrust are in general of similar shape.., increasing with Tmax and having in an optimum value at a certain pressure ratio. 1966J. H. Horlock Axial Flow Turbines viii. 211 A high value of specific thrust means that small engine weight is required.
1868Jones & Watts Fownes's Man. Chem. (ed. 10) ii. 250 The numbers obtained.., representing the *specific volumes of the various solid and liquid elementary substances, present far more cases of discrepancy than of agreement. 1957Amer. Inst. Physics Handbk. ii. 117 Many tables and other aids have been prepared for the routine calculation of density and specific volume of sea water.
3. a. Med. Of remedies, etc.: Specially or exclusively efficacious for, or acting upon, a particular ailment or part of the body.
1677W. Harris tr. Lemery's Chym. i. xvi. 195 It is esteemed to be specifick for malignant Diseases. 1680–90Temple Ess. Health & Long Life Wks. 1720 I. 285 Garlick..I believe is..a Specifick Remedy of the Gout. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., Physitians mention in their Books three kinds of Specifick Medicines. 1778R. James Diss. Fevers (ed. 8) 80 Little can be said in favour of specific medicines, but what is equally applicable to specific methods of cure. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 795 The internal administration of specific remedies.
b. Path. Of a distinct or characteristic kind.
1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 166 We must not impute the occurrence of these peculiar sores to mere irritability, but to some specific contagion. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xx. 234 The specific irritation of the skin termed scabies. 1876tr. Wagner's Gen. Path. 260 Specific-pus, is not distinguished histologically and chemically from common pus. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 150 Specific peribronchitis of the trachea and bronchi. 1899Ibid. VII. 685 Some of thses lesions are ‘specific’ in the sense of being characteristic of syphilis.
4. a. Precise or exact in respect of fulfilment, conditions, or terms; definite, explicit.
1740J. Penn, etc. (title), Upon a Bill to compell a Specifick Execution of Articles of Agreement, entred into between the Partys for setling the Boundarys of the Province of Pensilvania. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. 116 This may..be effected by a specific delivery or restoration of the subject-matter in dispute to the legal owner. 1856Dove Logic Chr. Faith v. ii. 317 We do not as yet know the specific commandments of the moral law. 1862Trollope Orley F. ii, She had been specific in her requests, urging him..to settle Orley Farm upon her own boy. 1871W. Markby Elem. Law §109 A command must by its very nature be specific.
b. Exactly named or indicated, or capable of being so; precise, particular.
1766Blackstone Comm. II. 8 What it is that gave a man an exclusive right to retain..that specific land. 1779Burke Corr. (1844) II. 264 A specific misconduct, brought home to a particular man, is always to be attended to. c1788― Charges agst. W. Hastings Wks. 1813 XII. 370 Without a publick well-vouched account of the specifick expenditure thereof. 1828Mackintosh Speech Ho. Commons Wks. 1846 III. 492 There are..two specific classes of grievances complained of by the Lower-Canadians. 1865H. Phillips Amer. Paper Curr. II. 68 No specific preparations had been made by the states to perform their part of the engagement. 1880L. Stephen Pope iv. 103 The specific cause of the quarrel, if cause there was, has not been clearly revealed.
c. Of a duty or tax: assessed on an article or goods according to quantity or amount without reference to value.
1789Deb. Congress U.S. 9 Apr. 107, I shall not pretend to say that there ought not to be specific duties laid upon every one of the articles enumerated. 1845J. K. Polk Diary 1 Nov. (1929) 23, I had recommended..the abolition of the minimum principle and specific duties. 1901J. S. Nicholson Pol. Econ. III. 348 If the tax is specific and not ad valorem. 1930M. Clark Home Trade iii. xxii. 187 Specific duties are those which are based on the quantity of the imported produce, i.e. they are so much per lb. or so much per gallon, etc. 1959Chambers's Encycl. V. 512/2 Specific duties are expressed as an amount of money on the unit amount of the product while ad valorem duties are expressed as a percentage addition to the selling price.
5. Of or pertaining to, connected with, etc., a distinct species of animals or plants. specific epithet (chiefly Bot. and Microbiology), the second (adjectival) element in the Latin name of a species according to the binomial system, which follows the generic name and serves to distinguish a species from others in the same genus; specific name, (a) (now chiefly Zool.) = specific epithet above; (b) (now chiefly Bot. and Microbiol.), the Latin name of a species, which in the binomial system comprises a generic name and a specific epithet.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v., The more accurate of the modern naturalists have..set about the reformation of the specific names of things. Ibid., But as this holds in all the genus, there can be no use made of it as a specific character. 1775Rose Elem. Bot. 302 A Plant is said to be compleatly named when it has got both the generic and specific name. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. p. v, Many of the Specific Characters..are entirely new. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 19 Specific names..often indicate the situation or the county where the plant is found naturally. 1866Darwin Orig. Spec. (ed. 4) ii. 58 Such characters of course are not of specific value. 1870Hooker Stud. Flora 147 Scarcely entitled to specific rank. 1871Nature 20 July 221/1 The mistake Cotteau is accused of making of assigning to Desor instead of Agassiz the specific name of Pseudodiadema hemisphæricum is entirely unfounded. 1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 359 Thus one great cause of specific modification would be wanting. 1905Règles Internat. Nomancl. Zool. (Congrès Internat. de Zool.) 31 A specific name becomes a subspecific name when the species so named becomes a subspecies. 1906Internat. Rules Bot. Nomencl. 1905 47 When a..species is moved into another genus..the first specific epithet..must be retained. 1926Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1925 75 A species [of animal] is a community, or a number of related communities, whose distinctive morphological characters are..sufficiently definite to entitle it, or them, to a specific name. 1945Rhodora XLVII. 274 Binomial nomenclature was not intended by Linnaeus to supersede the polynomial specific name. 1964Internat. Code Zool. Nomencl. ii. 7 The name of a species consists of two words (binomen)..;..the first word is the generic name, the second word is the specific name. 1966Internat. Code Bot. Nomencl. iii. 27 Tuber..was accompanied by binary specific names, e.g. Tuber cibarium, and is therefore admissible. Ibid. 30 The name of a species is a binary combination consisting of the name of the genus followed by a single specific epithet. 1970Watsonia VIII. 156 The specific epithet racemosa is.. not applicable in the genus Amelanchier. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia II. 1019/2 Gaspard Bauhin, a Swiss botanist of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, designated plants by a generic and a specific name. 1982Arms & Camp Biology (ed. 2) xx. 310 Specific epithets..are adjectives, and the same one may be combined with different generic names and used for a number of unrelated organisms; for example, Erythronium americanum, the trout lily; Euarctos americanus, the American black bear.
B. n.
1. a. A specific remedy. (See A. 3 a.)
1661Evelyn Fumifugium 8, I doe assent that both Lime and Sulphur are in some affections Specifics for the lungs. 1671Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii. 427 Elder-tree..is a specific for the cure of the Dropsie. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 170 Specificks for Fevers seem to have place chiefly in Agues. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. i. 429 If there be a Specifick in Aliment it is certainly Whey. 1779Johnson Lett. (1788) II. 64 How did you light on your specifick for the tooth-ach? 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxvii. 351 All specifics lead to a false system of therapeutics. 1873Spencer Study Sociol. i. (1877) 20 Always you find among people in proportion as they are ignorant, a belief in specifics.
attrib.1859Meredith R. Feverel xxii, Her parties were the dullest in London, and gradually fell into the hands of popular preachers, Specific Doctors, raw Missionaries [etc.].
b. transf. and fig.
1662Charleton Myst. Vintners (1675) 192 Having found out certain Specifics as it were, to palliate the several Vices of Wines of all sorts. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 224 For all Defences and Apologies Are but Specifics t' other Frauds and Lies. 1779J. Moore View Soc. Fr. (1789) I. xviii. 140 A more infallible specific against tedium and fatigue. 1841Helps Ess., Aids Contentm. (1842) 17, I have no intention of putting forward specifics for real afflictions, or pretending to teach refined methods for avoiding grief. 1860Mill Repr. Govt. (1865) 59/2 Against this evil the system of personal representation..is almost a specific.
2. A specific difference, quality, statement, subject, disease, etc. Usu. pl.; also loosely, details, particulars.
1697tr. Burgersdicius' Logic ii. ii. 7 The Difference is taken from his Form... But because incorporeal Substances have none, and the Specificks of Corporeal, even lye hid [etc.]. 1757E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) III. 148 The Phænomenon..is owing to two most uncommon Specifics, in the Constitution of your Mind, and of your Body. 1874H. W. Beecher Lect. Preaching Ser. iii. viii. 153 Generics never take hold of men. It is specifics that take hold of them. 1891Daily News 19 Oct. 6/5 Even in London Board Schools only 20,000 scholars were presented in specifics. 1893W. R. Gowers Dis. Nervous Syst. (ed. 2) II. 330 Acute specifics, pneumonia, and septicæmia. 1966New Statesman 9 Sept. 350/2 The latter [sc. journalism]..considers the specifics of an event, using implicit general principles of behaviour out of necessity. 1972G. Bromley In Absence of Body iii. 30 Let's get down to specifics. What can we actually do to help? 1975N.Y. Times 11 Sept. 8/1 Placing this tragedy of a woman's sexual obsession with her stepson within the arresting specifics of this strange setting does at least remove it from the fury-bestrewn never-never-land of the antique Greek drama. 1977F. Branston Up & Coming Man xii. 125 He told us he had been investing in property in London, but he was a bit vague about the specifics. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 152/1 Planning should start..with specifics rather than concepts.
3. A specific word, name, etc., spec. in taxonomy or toponymy.
1962Burrill & Bonsack in Householder & Saporta Prob. Lexicogr. 195 The elements in geographic names that indicate the class of the entity, e.g., in Red Hill..or Lake Erie.., Hill and Lake, are the generic elements (or ‘generics’). The elements that indentify the particular entity, in the above instances Red and Erie, are called the specific elements (or ‘specifics’). 1969J. Fowles French Lieutenant's Woman viii. 50 Although many scientists of the day gratefully used her [sc. Mary Anning's] finds to establish their own reputation, not one native type bears the specific anningii. 1977Word 1972 XXVIII. 133 Most of the specifics, or second elements, in such names are demonstrably of Gaelic and not of Pictish origin. |
