different between spectacle vs species

English

Etymology

From Middle English spectacle, from French spectacle, from Latin spect?culum (“a show, spectacle”), from spect? (“to see, behold”), frequentative of speci? (“to see”). See species.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sp?kt?kl?/
• Hyphenation: spec?ta?cle

Noun

spectacle (plural spectacles)

1. An exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc.
   • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[1]

     In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay.

2. An embarrassing or unedifying scene or situation.

3. (usually in the plural) An optical instrument consisting of two lenses set in a light frame, worn to assist sight, or to protect the eyes from bright light.
4. (figuratively) Something that helps understanding.

   • Povert' a spectacle is, as thinketh me, Through which he may his very friendes see.

5. (obsolete) A spyglass; a looking-glass.
6. The brille of a snake.
7. (rail transport) A frame with different coloured lenses on a semaphore signal through which light from a lamp shines at night, often a part of the signal arm.

Synonyms

• (exciting event): show; pageant
• (optical instrument): glasses, eyeglasses, specs

Derived terms

• bespectacled
• counterspectacle
• make a public spectacle of oneself
• make a spectacle of oneself
• spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch
• superspectacle

Related terms

• species
• spectacular
• speculate

Translations

Further reading

• spectacle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• Railway semaphore signal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Latin spectaculum, from spectare (“to look”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?k.takl/
• Hyphenation: spec?ta?cle

Noun

spectacle m (plural spectacles)

1. a show, a spectacle, a performance, a concert

2. a sight, a showing, a display

Derived terms

• se donner en spectacle

Descendants

• ? Czech: spektákl
• ? Polish: spektakl

Further reading

• “spectacle” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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.