specificspecific

Specific comes from Late Latin specificus ‘specific, particular’, from Latin speciēs ‘kind’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- ‘to see, to look, to observe’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speḱ-¹‘to see’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spéḱyeti²‘to be looking at’reconstructed
3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*spekjō²‘to observe’reconstructed
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspeciō³‘to see’
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspeciēs⁴‘kind’
6. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEspecificus⁴‘specific’
7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400specifique⁴
8. Englishearliest quotation 1830specific⁴

1. ¹ Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti
2. ² Wiktionary, Latin specio
3. ³ Wiktionary, Latin species
4. ⁴ Wiktionary, English specific
5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1830, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London: John Murray: “The study of specific medicines is too much disregarded…”.