specimen

See also: spécimen

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

specimen

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin specimen (“mark, sign, example”), from speciō (“observe, watch”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈspɛsɪmɪn/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Hyphenation: spe‧ci‧men
Audio (US): (file)

Noun

specimen (plural specimens or (extremely rare) specimina)

An individual instance that represents a class; an example.
early specimens of the art of Picasso

a specimen of my own handwriting
- 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 34:
  "You're a nice specimen for a clergyman," he said at length, "with your preachin" an" your psalm-singin', an" your Sunday coat on."
- 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 161:
  It has been a common misinterpretation by both Marxists and anti-Marxists to suppose that he regarded human beings merely as specimens of social classes, and that the 'restoration of their species-essence' meant the annihilation of individuality or its reduction to a common social nature.
- 2006, Bill Neal, Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier:
  To assure a defendant's acquittal, a lawyer usually needed only to convince the jury that the victim was a pretty sorry specimen of a human being.
1. (numismatics) A banknote printed for distribution to central banks to aid in the recognition of banknotes from a country other than their own
2. (philately) A postage stamp sent to postmasters and postal administrations so that they are able to identify valid stamps and to avoid forgeries
3. (derogatory) An unpleasant or contemptible person.
  such a loathsome specimen of humanity
A sample, especially one used for diagnostic analysis.
(humorous, often preceded with “fine”) An eligible man.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

species

Translations

example

Antigua and Barbuda Creole English: kodenguu
Armenian: օրինակ (hy) (ōrinak), նմուշ (hy) (nmuš)
Azerbaijani: nümunə (az)
Bulgarian: образец (bg) m (obrazec)
Catalan: espècimen m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 樣本 / 样本 (zh) (yàngběn)
Czech: ukázka (cs) f, exemplář (cs) m
Danish: eksemplar n
Dutch: voorbeeld (nl) n
Finnish: esimerkki (fi)
French: spécimen (fr) m, exemple (fr) m
German: Exemplar (de) n, Muster (de) n
Greek: δείγμα (el) n (deígma)
Hungarian: példány (hu)
Icelandic: sýnataka
Italian: esemplare (it) m
Japanese: 見本 (ja) (みほん, mihon)
Korean: 표본 (ko) (pyobon)
Latin: specimen n
Polish: przykład (pl) m, okaz (pl) m, osobnik (pl) m (used for animals)
Portuguese: espécime (pt) m, exemplar (pt) m
Romanian: specimen (ro), exemplar (ro)
Russian: образе́ц (ru) m (obrazéc), экземпля́р (ru) m (ekzɛmpljár)
Scottish Gaelic: sampall m
Spanish: espécimen (es) m
Swedish: exemplar (sv) n
Turkish: örnek (tr), numune (tr)
Ottoman Turkish: نمونه (nümune), موده‌ل (model)

sample

Amharic: ናሙና f (namuna)
Azerbaijani: nümunə (az)
Bhojpuri: नमूना (namūnā)
Bulgarian: проба (bg) f (proba)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 標本 / 标本 (zh) (biāoběn)
Czech: vzorek (cs) m
Dutch: specimen (nl) n
Finnish: näyte (fi), näytepala
French: exemple (fr) m
German: Spezimen n, Probe (de) f
Greek: δείγμα (el) n (deígma)
Hungarian: minta (hu)
Ido: specimeno (io)
Indonesian: spesimen (id)
Italian: campione (it) m
Japanese: 標本 (ja) (ひょうほん, hyōhon)
Korean: 표본 (ko) (pyobon)
Māori: pota
Plautdietsch: Proow f
Polish: próbka (pl) f
Portuguese: exemplar (pt) f, amostra (pt) f
Russian: препара́т (ru) m (preparát), про́ба (ru) f (próba)
Scottish Gaelic: sampall m
Spanish: ejemplar (es) m
Swedish: specimen (sv) c
Turkish: örnek (tr), numune (tr)
Ottoman Turkish: نمونه (nümune), موده‌ل (model)
Vietnamese: mẫu vật

jocular: an eligible man

Italian: esemplare (it)
Russian: экземпля́р (ru) (ekzempljár)

Interlingua

Noun

specimen (plural specimens)

specimen, sample

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-

Proto-Indo-European *-yeti

Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti

Proto-Italic *spekjō

Latin speciō

Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥

Proto-Italic *-mn̥

Latin -men

Latin specimen

From speciō (“observe, watch”) + -men (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈspɛ.kɪ.mɛn]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈspɛː.t͡ʃi.men]

Noun

specimen n (genitive speciminis); third declension

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	specimen	specimina
genitive	speciminis	speciminum
dative	speciminī	speciminibus
accusative	specimen	specimina
ablative	specimine	speciminibus
vocative	specimen	specimina

Descendants

→ Catalan: espècimen
→ English: specimen
→ French: spécimen
→ Portuguese: espécime
→ Spanish: espécimen

References

“specimen”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“specimen”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
“specimen”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- an ideal: species optima or eximia, specimen, also simply species, forma
specimen in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-

Proto-Indo-European *-yeti

Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti

Proto-Italic *spekjō

Latin speciō

Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥

Proto-Italic *-mn̥

Latin -men

Latin specimenlbor.

French spécimenbor.

Romanian specimen

Borrowed from French spécimen.

Noun

specimen n (plural specimene)

specimen

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	specimen	specimenul	specimene	specimenele
genitive-dative	specimen	specimenului	specimene	specimenelor
vocative	specimenule		specimenelor