different between specious vs species

English

Etymology

From Latin speci?sus (“good-looking”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?spi???s/
• Rhymes: -i???s

Adjective

specious (comparative more specious, superlative most specious)

1. Seemingly well-reasoned, plausible or true, but actually fallacious.

   Synonyms: fallacious, insincere

   • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes:

     now to the discourse itself, voluble enough, and full of sentence, but that, for the most part, either specious rather than solid, or to his cause nothing pertinent.
2. Employing fallacious but deceptively plausible arguments; deceitful.
   • 1829, William Phelan, Mortimer O'Sullivan, Ireland: A digest taken before Select Committees of the two Houses of Parliament, appointed to inquire into the State of Ireland, 1824—25, in The Christian Review and Clerical Magazine, Volume III, page 472,

     But a third cause of the delusion is, that the Church of Rome has become more specious and deceitful than before the Reformation.

3. Having an attractive appearance intended to generate a favorable response; deceptively attractive.

   Synonyms: meretricious, pretextual

   • 1760, William Warburton, The Lord Bishop of Gloucester's Sermon Preached Before the Right Honourable the House of Lords, January 30, 1760, page 19,

     And could any thing be more ?pecious, or more equal, than that fair di?tribution of power and profit, which men called the NEW MODEL?

   • 1788, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 59

     This argument, though specious, will not, upon examination, be found solid.

4. (obsolete) Beautiful, pleasing to look at.

Derived terms

• specious present
• specious tiger (Asota speciosa, a species of moth)

Related terms

• speciosity
• speciously
• speciousness

Translations

See also

• spurious

Anagrams

• cosies up

English

Etymology

From Latin speci?s (“appearance; quality”), from speci? (“see”) + -i?s suffix signifying abstract noun. Doublet of spice

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spi??i?z/, /?spi?si?z/. Some speakers pronounce the singular with -?z, the plural with -i?z.

Noun

species (plural species or (rare, nonstandard) specieses)

1. Type or kind. (Compare race.)
   • 1871, Richard Holt Hutton, Essays, Theological and Literary

     What is called spiritualism should, I think, be called a mental species of materialism.
   1. A group of plants or animals having similar appearance.
   2. (biology, taxonomy) A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below genus; a taxon at that rank.
      • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species:

        Hence, in determining whether a form should be ranked as a species or a variety, the opinion of naturalists having sound judgment and wide experience seems the only guide to follow.
   3. (chemistry, physics) A particular type of atom, molecule, ion or other particle.
   4. (mineralogy) A mineral with a unique chemical formula whose crystals belong to a unique crystallographic system.
2. An image, an appearance, a spectacle.
   1. (obsolete) The image of something cast on a surface, or reflected from a surface, or refracted through a lens or telescope; a reflection.

   2. Visible or perceptible presentation; appearance; something perceived.

      • Wit, […] the faculty of imagination in the writer, which searches over all the memory for the species or ideas of those things which it designs to represent.

      • the species of the letters illuminated with indigo and violet

   3. A public spectacle or exhibition.

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

3. (Christianity) Either of the two elements of the Eucharist after they have been consecrated.
4. Coin, or coined silver, gold, or other metal, used as a circulating medium; specie.
   • 1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures

     There was, in the splendour of the Roman empire, a less quantity of current species in Europe than there is now.

5. A component part of compound medicine; a simple.
6. An officinal mixture or compound powder of any kind; especially, one used for making an aromatic tea or tisane; a tea mixture.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Thomas de Quincey to this entry?)

Usage notes

• species is its own plural; specie is a separate word that means coin money.
• (biology, taxonomy): See species name, binomial nomenclature.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• race
• (taxonomy, rank):
  • domain
  • kingdom
  • phylum/division
  • class
  • order
  • family
  • genus
  • superspecies
  • species
    • subspecies, form
    • (botany, horticulture): variety, cultivar

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “species”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Noun

species

1. plural of specie

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

species

1. Plural form of specie

Synonyms

• speciën

Latin

Etymology

From speci? (“see”) + -i?s suffix signifying abstract noun.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?spe.ki.e?s/, [?s?p?kie?s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?spe.t??i.es/, [?sp??t??i?s]

Noun

speci?s f (genitive speci??); fifth declension

1. a seeing, view, look
2. a spectacle, sight
3. external appearance, looks; general outline or shape
4. semblance, pretence, pretext, outward show
5. show, display
6. (figuratively) vision, dream, apparition
7. (figuratively) honor, reputation
8. (figuratively) a kind, quality, type
9. (law, later) a special case

Declension

Fifth-declension noun.

Derived terms

• speci?tim

Descendants

References

• species in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• species in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• species in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.