Which Came First?

[NOIRTRASH]

PARTICULAR OR SPECIFIC?

Both come from Latin, and their meanings were distinct.

SPECIFIC pertained to kind.

PARTICULAR pertained to a part of the whole.

Most use the words as synonyms for each other tho they cant be the same. It aqint six of one and a half dozen of the other.

 

[Serafina1210]

PARTICULAR OR SPECIFIC?

Both come from Latin, and their meanings were distinct.

SPECIFIC pertained to kind.

PARTICULAR pertained to a part of the whole.

Most use the words as synonyms for each other tho they cant be the same. It aqint six of one and a half dozen of the other.

"Particular" is a lot earlier than "specific," being attested as early as the fourteenth century, while "specific" doesn't show up till the seventeenth. Their meanings overlap, so they can be synonyms, but the coverage of each word is different.

"Specific" has to do with belonging to a species (in the sense "a kind of thing," not "species of animal or plant"). Typically fussy OED definition: "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."

"Particular" has to do with belonging to a part of a thing as opposed to the whole, and from there the sense broadens to include "That is a unit or one among a number; taken or considered as an individual, apart from the rest; single; distinct, individual, specific" (OED).

You can see how the meanings are related.

 

[slutindianwife]

Very interesting

 

[NOIRTRASH]

"Particular" is a lot earlier than "specific," being attested as early as the fourteenth century, while "specific" doesn't show up till the seventeenth. Their meanings overlap, so they can be synonyms, but the coverage of each word is different.

"Specific" has to do with belonging to a species (in the sense "a kind of thing," not "species of animal or plant"). Typically fussy OED definition: "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."

"Particular" has to do with belonging to a part of a thing as opposed to the whole, and from there the sense broadens to include "That is a unit or one among a number; taken or considered as an individual, apart from the rest; single; distinct, individual, specific" (OED).

You can see how the meanings are related.

Both are latin in origin, and related like foot in mouth.