specialty

• speciality (British / Commonwealth spelling)

From Old French specialte, especialte, from Latin specialitas.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈspɛʃəlti/

• Audio (US)

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specialty (plural specialties) (American spelling)

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

   They cook well overall, but their true specialty is pasta.

   • 1858, Charles Kingsley, “My Winter-Garden,” Fraser’s Magazine, Volume 57, p. 410,

     Even men of boundless knowledge, like Humboldt, must have had once their speciality, their pet subject, or they would have, strictly speaking, no knowledge at all.

2. (obsolete) Particularity.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 3,

     The specialty of rule hath been neglected:

     And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand

     Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.

3. A particular or peculiar case.
4. An attribute or quality peculiar to a species.
5. (law) A contract or obligation under seal; a contract by deed; a writing, under seal, given as security for a debt particularly specified.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wharton (Law Dict.) to this entry?)

   • c. 1593,, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene 1, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, London, 1623, p. 215,

     Let specialties be therefore drawne betweene vs,

     That couenants may be kept on either hand.

   • 1812, Joseph Chitty, A Treatise on Pleading, with a Collection of Practical Precedents, and Notes Thereon, 2nd American edition, edited by Thomas Day, New York, Volume 2, section 456, note c,

     […] in a plea to an action of debt on specialty, it is still necessary to show that the debt on which the judgment was recovered was a specialty, or to aver that the judgment was recovered before the defendant had notice of the plaintiff’s demand.

• specialist
• subspecialty
• subspecialist