Spe-cif'ic or Spe-cif'ic-al1, a.
a. [Fr. spécifique, It. specifico, Sp. especifico, N. Lat. specificus, from Lat. species, a particular sort or kind, and facere, to make. See SPECIES.] 1. Pertaining to, characterizing, or constituting a species; possessing the peculiar property or properties of a thing, which constitute its species, and distinguish it from other things; as, the specific form of an animal or a plant; the specific qualities of a plant or a drug; the specific distinction between virtue and vice.
Specific difference is that primary attribute which distinguishes each species from one another. Watts.
Sense 2. Tending to specify or make particular; definite; limited; precise; as, a specific statement.
Sense 3. (Med.) Exerting a peculiar influence over any part of the body; preventing or curing disease by a peculiar adaptation, and not on general principles; hence, the idea of certainty, or infallibility, often attributed to specifics.
In fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of the science. Coleridge.
Specific character (Nat. Hist.), a circumstance or circumstances distinguishing one species from every other species of the same genus. — Specific gravity (Physics), the weight that belongs to an equal bulk of each body. See GRAVITY. — Specific heat, the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of a body one degree, taking as the unit of measure the quantity required to raise the same weight of water one degree; thus, the specific heat of mercury is 0.033, that of water being 1.000. — Specific legacy (Law), a bequest of a particular thing, as of a particular animal or piece of furniture, specified and distinguished from all others. Wharton, Burvill. — Specific name (Nat. Hist.), the name which, appended to the name of the genus, constitutes the distinctive name of the species; — originally applied by Linnæus to the essential character of the species, or the essential difference. The present specific name he at first called the trivial name.