Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “specialty” come from?

Specialty comes from Old French specialte, derived from Latin specialitas, meaning a particular or distinctive quality.

specialty (English): That in which one specializes; a chosen expertise...

Definitions

  1. That in which one specializes; a chosen expertise...

Ancestry of “specialty”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchspecialte—
2Latinspecialitas—

Words derived from “specialty”

  • subspecialty
  • multispecialty
  • nonspecialty
  • multispeciality
Every word from Latin specialitas →