different between specialty vs specialities

English

Alternative forms

• speciality (British / Commonwealth spelling)

Etymology

From Old French specialte, especialte, from Latin specialitas.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?sp???lti/

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,^[1]

     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. (obsolete) Particularity.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 3,^[2]

     The specialty of rule hath been neglected:

     And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand

     Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.

3. A particular or peculiar case.
4. An attribute or quality peculiar to a species.
5. (law) A contract or obligation under seal; a contract by deed; a writing, under seal, given as security for a debt particularly specified.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wharton (Law Dict.) to this entry?)

   • c. 1593,, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene 1, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, London, 1623, p. 215,^[3]

     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,^[4]

     […] 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

English

Noun

specialities

1. plural of speciality