different between specify vs institute

English

Etymology

From Old French specifier, especefier, or directly from Medieval Latin specific?, from specificus (“specific”).

Pronunciation

• (UK)IPA^(key): /?sp?s.?.fa?/
• (US)IPA^(key): /?sp?s.??fa?/
• Hyphenation: spe?ci?fy

Verb

specify (third-person singular simple present specifies, present participle specifying, simple past and past participle specified)

1. (transitive) To state explicitly, or in detail, or as a condition.
2. (transitive) To include in a specification.
3. (transitive) To bring about a specific result.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To speak explicitly or in detail (often used with of).

Synonyms

• explicitize
• disambiguate

Derived terms

• above-specified

Related terms

• specifiable
• specific
• specification

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nst?t(j)u?t/, /??nst?t?u?t/

Etymology 1

From French institut, from Middle French, from Latin ?nstit?tum.

Noun

institute (plural institutes)

1. An organization founded to promote a cause

2. An institution of learning; a college, especially for technical subjects
3. The building housing such an institution
4. (obsolete) The act of instituting; institution.
5. (obsolete) That which is instituted, established, or fixed, such as a law, habit, or custom.
   • 1837, Robert Huish, The History of the Life and Reign of William IV, the Reform Monarch of England,

     They made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy.

   • to make the Stoic institutes thy own

6. (law, Scotland) The person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation.

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

Derived terms

• educational institute
• research institute
• academic institute

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Latin ?nstit?tus, past participle of ?nstitu? (“I set up, place upon, purpose, begin, institute”), from in (“in, on”) + statu? (“set up, establish”).

Verb

institute (third-person singular simple present institutes, present participle instituting, simple past and past participle instituted)

1. (transitive) To begin or initiate (something); to found.

   He instituted the new policy of having children walk through a metal detector to enter school.

   • 1776, Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence:

     Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To train, instruct.

   • Publius was the first that ever instituted the Souldier to manage his armes by dexteritie and skil, and joyned art unto vertue, not for the use of private contentions, but for the wars and Roman peoples quarrels.

   • a. 1684, author unknown, Gentleman's Calling

     If children were early instituted, knowledge would insensibly insinuate itself.

3. To nominate; to appoint.
4. (ecclesiastical, law) To invest with the spiritual charge of a benefice, or the care of souls.

Translations

Adjective

institute (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Established; organized; founded.
   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (sometimes spelt Raphe Robynson) (translator), Utopia (originally written by Sir Thomas More)

     They have but few laws. For to a people so instruct and institute, very few to suffice.

Related terms

• institution
• institutional

Further reading

• institute in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• institute in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• institute at OneLook Dictionary Search

Latin

Participle

?nstit?te

1. vocative masculine singular of ?nstit?tus

References

• institute in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)