Also 7, 9 dial. speciment. [a. L. specimen, f. specĕre to look, look at. Cf. F. spécimen, Sp. especimen.
The Latin pl. specimina was fairly common in the latter half of the 17th c.]
† 1. A means of discovering or finding out; an experiment. Obs.–1
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. viii. 17. For deprehending and finding out the taste of the Earth, Virgil prescribes a generall Specimen … for triall of salt and bitter soyles.
† 2. A pattern or model. Obs.
1619. R. Jones, Resurrection Rescued (1659), 67. Our Resurrection shall be like our Saviour’s: His and ours make a mutual Aspect; His the Specimen, and ours the Complement.
1647. H. More, Poems, 60. It so weakens and disables men That they of manhood give no goodly specimen.
1697. Observ. Money & Coin, 2. Some Brittish Princes did Coyn some pieces both of Gold and Silver, of which he there exhibits to us the Specimina.
3. An example, instance, or illustration of something, from which the character of the whole may be inferred.
1659. Bp. Walton, Consid. Considered, 291. These specimina of his candor and love of truth.
1683. Cave, Ecclesiastici, Greg. Naz., 282. He had scarce given a Speciment of his Learning.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pref. (1721), 21. You have here a specimen of Chaucer’s language.
1780. Mirror, No. 97. The conversations of which I have given you a specimen.
1829. Jas. Mill, Hum. Mind (1869), I. 133. It is one of those specimens of clear and vigorous statement … in which the Analysis abounds.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Shaks., Wks. (Bohn), I. 357. Our English Bible is a wonderful specimen of the strength and music of the English language.
1863. D. G. Mitchell, Sev. Stor., 4. It is a fair specimen of what the Roman stationers could do.
4. A single thing selected or regarded as typical of its class; a part or piece of something taken as representative of the whole.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 493. Any one may sooner finde a fault, than mend it, in any Specimens, or performances of Art.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 99. Things … of which they had brought specimens.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 239. English workmen, who have made specimens of the several articles of equal goodness with those of the Dutch.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. vii. 128. We cannot judge of this concealed genius by many specimens we have of her correspondence.
1853. Maurice, Proph. & Kings, xix. 335. A very memorable chapter of Micah’s prophecy,… which our Church has chosen as a specimen of the whole book.
1887. Lowell, Democracy, etc. 96. It was not a bringing of the brick as a specimen of the house.
b. spec. An animal, plant, or mineral, a part or portion of some substance or organism, etc., serving as an example of the thing in question for purposes of investigation or scientific study.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 126. I have found and send a specimen of another yellow trefoil.
1797. Phil. Trans., LXXXVII. 383. I covered one side of a specimen of Iceland crystal, three inches deep, with black paper.
1803. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), II. 112. Very busy in putting up a box of [botanical] specimens for Mr. Paykull and Dr. Swartz.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xvi. (1842), 431. Such portions of valuable fluids or solids … intended for specimens.
1854. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 121. This determination of the amount of coke yielded by any specimen of coal.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 192. In different specimens, however, the lava exhibits great variations.
transf. 1844. S. Wilberforce, Hist. Prot. Episc. Ch. Amer. (1846), 5. The native thus cruelly kidnapped was not the only specimen they gathered.
1850. Ht. Martineau, Hist. Peace, V. xi. (1877), III. 414. He will stand in history as a specimen—dry and curious—but in no way as a vital being.
c. With adjs. denoting the value of the example as a type.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1867), 463. These complimentary sonnets … are not the happiest specimens in our language of these minor poems.
1849. Parker, Introd. Stud. Gothic Archit., v. 197. Lincoln college chapel is also a very favourable specimen of Jacobean Gothic.
1856. Delamer, Fl. Garden (1861), 2. If we can show finer and more remarkable specimens than our neighbours, so much the better.
5. Of persons as typical of certain qualities or of the human species. Also colloq. or slang with derogatory force, chiefly with defining adj., as a bright, poor (etc.) specimen.
(a) 1817. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXII. 92. Mr. Hickman and Mr. Young … are new specimens of the spirit and the talent, which the times and the cause of freedom have brought forth.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xxi. 183. Growling was looking on in amused wonder, at this specimen of vulgar effrontery, whom he had christened ‘The Brazen Baggage,’ the first time he saw her.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 703. They were perhaps the two most remarkable specimens that the world could show of perverse absurdity.
(b) 1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. ‘Here you are, sir,’ shouted a strange specimen of the human race.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 328. Where one continually sees magnificent specimens of human beings.
(c) 1854. Thoreau, Walden (1884), 163. There were some curious specimens among my visitors.
1908. R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, ii. 15. ‘What was her husband about?’ asked Jim Sinclair. ‘He must have been a poor specimen.’
† 6. A brief and incomplete account of something in writing; a rough draught or outline serving to show the chief features. Obs.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., Pref. 2 b. Some specimen of each of which Heads the Reader will find in the subsequent delineations.
1672. Life Mede, in M.’s Wks. (ed. 3), p. xxx. To the same effect he had express’d himself in an early Specimen or first Draught of his Thoughts.
7. (See quot.)
1819. Act 59 Geo. III., c. 90 § 10. Whereas it is usual for the Officers of Excise to leave on the Premises of the Traders and Manufacturers under their Survey, certain Books or Papers commonly called Specimens, for recording therein the Entries in the Books of such Officers of the state of the Manufactory [etc.].
8. attrib., passing into adj. (freq. hyphened): Serving as, or intended for, a specimen; typical.
Freq. in recent use and often applied to plants, fish, etc., of an exceptionally large size or fine quality.
1860. Adler, Prov. Poet., xviii. 421. I have … produced such specimen-quotations as will serve to give us an idea of the decadence of this poetry.
1870. Hist. Sketch Anderston Ch., 9. These specimen facts speak of marvellous changes.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 251. The highest assay made from specimen rock was $2,000 per ton.
1877. Academy, 3 Nov., 428/1. The specimen chapter here given us is on Guicciardini’s embassy to Spain in 1511.
1896. Daily News, 7 Sept., 7/5. A number of ‘specimen’ fish have lately been caught in the Thames.
b. Comb., as specimen-hunter, -monger, etc.; specimen book, a book of specimens or samples; specimen-box, a portable box or case specially adapted for carrying botanical or other specimens.
1864. C. P. Smith, Our Inherit. in Gt. Pyramid, 18. The hammers of tourists and the axes of specimen-mongers.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 4 Nov., 4/1. It used to be a favourite resort of the entomological specimen hunter.
1896. T. L. De Vinne, Moxon’s Mech. Exerc., Print., 404. The specimen-book of the Enschedé foundry.
1897. Mrs. E. L. Voynich, Gadfly, I. ii. 21. Arthur brought out his specimen box and plunged into an earnest botanical discussion.
Hence Specimenify v. trans., to select as a specimen or instance; Specimenize v. trans., to show a specimen or sample of; to collect or preserve as a specimen.
1821. Lamb, Lett. (1888), II. 34. The line you cannot appropriate is Gray’s sonnet, specimenifyed by Wordsworth … as mixed of bad and good style.
1832. Blackw. Mag., XXXII. 812/1. A conceited coxcomb, Editor of a Radical Reforming Hebodomadal, tormented the birds and poked the beasts, specimenizing fantastically his ‘universal knowledge.’
1894. E. H. A[itken], Naturalist on Prowl, 173. I noticed a lovely little silvery spider, and resolved to specimenize it.
