Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “speciality” come from?

Speciality derives from English special combined with the French suffix -ité, from Latin specialis meaning "of a particular kind" plus the Latin suffix -itas forming abstract nouns.

speciality (English): Britain standard form of specialty

Definitions

  1. Britain standard form of specialty

Ancestry of “speciality”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishspecialDistinguished by a unique or unusual quality; Of...
2Middle Englishspecial—
3Old Frenchespecialspecial; powerful; mighty
4Latinspecialisspecific
5Latinspeciēs—
6Latinspeciō—
7Proto-Italicspekjōto observe, to see
8Proto-Indo-Europeanspéḱyetito be looking at, to keep looking at
9Proto-Indo-Europeanspeḱ-to see, to look, to observe

Words derived from “speciality”

  • multispeciality
Every word from Proto-Indo-European speḱ- →