▪ I. speˈcificate, n. rare—1.
[Cf. next.]
Something specified or stated.
| 1804 Coleridge in Blackw. Mag. (1882) CXXXI. 124 The imaginative power..acting with its permeative..might on the thoughts, images, specificates of the poet. |
▪ II. specificate, v. Now rare or Obs.
(spɛˈsɪfɪkeɪt, spə-)
[ad. med.L. specificāt-, ppl. stem of specificāre specify v.]
1. trans. To distinguish as belonging to a particular species, group, kind, etc.; to determine specifically.
| 1620 T. Granger Div. Logike 43 Whereby men are most specially specificated and individuated. 1637 Gillespie Eng. Pop. Cerem. iv. iii. 7 An action is said to be specificated by its object, and individuated by its circumstances. 1673–4 Grew Anat., Trunks i. ii. 108 The properties, whereby the said Vessels of the Barque are specificated and distinguished one from another. |
| refl. c 1629 Donne Serm. vii. (1640) 69 Life is the character by which Christ specificates and denominates himselfe. 1653 Ashwell Fides Apost. 57 A peculiar Epithite, wherby he specificates himselfe. |
2. To apply specifically or especially to; to confine or limit to.
| 1631 J. Burges Answ. Rejoined 33 God doth not onely commend Davids affection in generall, but his affection [is] actuated to a deed, and specificated to this deede. a 1638 Mede Wks. (1672) 843 That passage being it seems anciently specificated to Resurrectio Prima. 1687 J. Renwick Pref., Lect., & Serm. (1776) 446 We must understand that prayer to be specificated to that all for whom he gave himself a ransom. |
3. To give specific or explicit details of or concerning; to mention specifically or in detail; to particularize or specify.
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Disc. Pref. ¶25 Those few superadded precepts, in which God did specificate their prime duty. 1654 G. Goddard in Burton's Diary (1828) I. 150 But we shall..labour to specificate our enemies, to know who they be, and are, that seek the very destruction and being of these nations. 1843 Tait's Mag. X. 137/1 In beginning the following story, with the same popular phrase, we specificate a very different moment from the arduous struggles of the Pretender. 1847 Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. XXXVI. 632 Of which latter office my Correspondent could not..quite specificate the meaning. |
4. To render specific in character or qualities. † Chiefly Chem. (common c 1650–80).
| 1650 Ashmole Chym. Coll. 125 That it might..communicate its fixt Nature, to the prepared Medicine, which being specificated it might at length become perfect. 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 257 The vine..specificates the water..into its own shape. 1694 Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1715) 463/2 It is a general Remedy and may be specificated by the addition of several Salts. |
| 1866 Nation 4 Oct. 269/1 Words have seemingly contrary and inconsistent tendencies. Now they incline to specificate that which was generic; now to generalize that which was specific. |
5. intr. To become specific.
| 1835 Coleridge in Fraser's Mag. XII. 494 In a crystal we may perceive a tendency to specificate, or become a specific total. |
Hence speˈcificated, speˈcificating ppl. adjs.
| 1651 French Distill. v. 163 When it hath received its body by becoming a specificated salt. 1657 Owen Vindication of Treatise on Schism ix. 142 Disputes about an implicit and explicit covenant, of specificating forms [etc.]. 1666 Boyle Orig. Forms & Qual. 316 All the Volatile, and Acid, and Lixiviate Salts, that we know of, are of so determinate and specificated a Nature,..that there is no one sort of the three. a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. (1677) 40 Without any particular, specificating, concurrent, new imperate act of the Divine special Providence to every particular determination of his Will. 1763 W. Lewis Phil. Comm. Arts 72 The specificating principles of the metal. |