v. [ad. F. spécialiser, = It. specializzare, Sp. and Pg. especializar: see SPECIAL a. and -IZE.]
1. trans. To mention or indicate specially; to specify, particularize.
1616. R. Sheldon, Miracles Antichrist., 261. Our Sauiour specialising and nominating the places in which these false prophets should teach his presence to be.
1657. J. Sergeant, Schism Dispach’t, 66. The proper answer … is to specialize some plea for themselves, which will not as well excuse their Desertours.
1873. Ferguson, Discourses, 23. Still less has he a right to specialise the sign from heaven by which the proof is to be established.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 61. I will now specialise a few of those virtues the attainment of which should be an object of lofty ambition.
b. absol. To enter into particulars or details.
1613. Wither, Abuses Stript, in Juvenilia (1633), 249. First lash the Great-ones; but if thou be wise, In generall and doe not speciallize.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. 296. It is quite common with Æschylus to give a general description first, and then specialise.
2. To render special or specific; to invest with a special character or function.
1628. Earle, Microcosm., Scept. in Reliq. (Arb.), 67. He is at most a confus’d and wild Christian, not specializ’d by any forme, but capable of all.
1701. Norris, Ideal World, I. vi. 321. The great difficulty is to specialize this account, to shew in particular what kind of thing truth is.
1850. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. v. 73. He specializes what is universal.
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, xi. 339. A belief in some systematic ruler of the world,… not specialised in form or character. Ibid., xii. 362. The Attic legal system … by specialising its courts apparently provided for a prompt and accurate treatment of disputes.
b. spec. in Biol. In pa. pple.: Adapted to a special function or environment; modified by development tending towards this end.
1851. S. P. Woodward, Mollusca, I. 32. Respiration is performed by the mantle, or by a portion of it specialized, and forming a gill.
1874. Lubbock, Orig. & Met. Ins., v. 86. The earliest known Neuroptera and Orthoptera, though in some respects less specialized than existing forms.
1881. Tylor, Anthrop., ii. 43. Man’s upper and lower extremities have become differentiated or specialised in two opposite ways.
c. To develop (parts) by adaptation to surroundings.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 558. If this sort of weather goes on I expect I shall specialise fins and gills myself.
3. To make narrower and more intensive.
1855. M. Pattison, in Oxford Ess., 292. The very fact that the new Statute has restrained and specialised the subjects in the School of Literæ Humaniores. Ibid. (1868), Academ. Org., v. 264. The principle I am now contending for goes further still in the direction of specialising study.
4. intr. a. To engage in special study or some special line of business, etc.
1881. Jrnl. Educ., 1 March, 51/1. They will not allow their scholars to specialize.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., cii. III. 442. Enabling men to specialize … in matters like history and Oriental or Romance philology.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 505. A certain set of men and women then specialise off to study how these spirits can be managed.
b. To develop in a special direction; to assume a special form or function.
1889. Lancet, 28 Sept., 635/1. That some cells have specialised on the amœboid character is seen in the so-called myeloplaxes.
