Adjective

(en adjective)

explicit or definite

(sciences) Pertaining to a species.

*2008 , (Richard Dawkins), The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing , Oxford 2009, p. 3:

*:Science and literature, then, are the two achievements of Homo sapiens that most convincingly justify the specific name.

(taxonomy) pertaining to a taxon at the rank of species

special, distinctive or unique

intended for, or applying to a particular thing

being a remedy for a particular disease

Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.

* Coleridge

In fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of the science.

(immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen

(physics) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)

(physics) similarly referring to a value divided by any measure which acts to standardize it (e.g. thrust specific fuel consumption, referring to fuel consumption divided by thrust)

(physics) a measure compared with a standard reference value by division, to produce a ratio without unit or dimension (e.g. specific refractive index is a pure number, and is relative to that of air)

Adjective

(en adjective)

(lb) Suitable.

#Suited or acceptable to the purpose or circumstances; fit, suitable.

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#*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

#*:The proper study of mankind is man.

#*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.}}

#Following the established standards of behavior or manners; correct or decorous.

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#*

#*:This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.

(lb) Possessed, related.

#(lb) Used to designate a particular person, place, or thing. Proper words are usually written with an initial capital letter.

#Pertaining exclusively to a specific thing or person; particular.

#*, II.1.3:

#*:They have a proper saint almost for every peculiar infirmity: for poison, gouts, agues.

#*(Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)

#*:those high and peculiar attributeswhich constitute our proper humanity

#(lb) Belonging to oneself or itself; own.

#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

#*:my proper son

#*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

#*:Now learn the difference, at your proper cost, / Betwixt true valour and an empty boast.

#*, II.4.1.ii:

#*:every country, and more than that, every private place, hath his proper remedies growing in it, particular almost to the domineering and most frequent maladies of it.

#*1946 , (Bertrand Russell), (A History of Western Philosophy) , I.20:

#*:Each animal has its proper' pleasure, and the ' proper pleasure of man is connected with reason.

#(lb) Portrayed in natural or usual coloration, as opposed to conventional tinctures.

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(lb) Accurate, strictly applied.

#Excellent, of high quality; such as the specific person or thing should ideally be. (Now often merged with later senses.)

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#*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) VII:

#*:The same tyme was Moses borne, and was a propper childe in the sight of God, which was norisshed up in his fathers housse thre monethes.

#In the very strictest sense of the word (now often as postmodifier).

#*, Episode 16:

#*:Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their head in some secluded spot outside the city proper .

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