Other forms: specials
Special means different from ordinary in a way that matters to you. A special occasion, a special friend, the special chalked on the cafe board that is not on the normal menu.
The second job of the word is made for one purpose: special forces, special offer, special delivery, special effects, special educational needs. As a noun it names the one-off thing itself — today's special, a Christmas special on television. Watch the pair specially and especially: made specially for you means made for that purpose, but especially good means good above all others. Nothing special is the polite English way of saying ordinary. And a special someone carries a romance that a special customer does not, so the same word lands in two quite different places.
1adjectivespecialNot ordinary, and valued or important because of it.~2%
“We keep the good plates for special occasions.”
2adjectiveintendedMade or intended for one particular purpose or person.~79%
“The bank has a special account for under-eighteens.”
3adjectivegreaterGreater than usual in amount or degree.~2%
“Take special care with the box marked glass.”
4noundishA dish, offer or programme made for one occasion.~17%
“The special today is lamb with rosemary.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 17 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Special came through Middle English from Old French especial, from Latin specialis, which comes from species, a kind or a sort. Something special was first of a particular kind; the praise in the word grew on afterwards. It pushed out the Old English word synderlic, and it is a doublet of especial — the same Latin word walking into English twice by different doors.
Proto-Indo-European
*speḱ-
Middle English
especial
English, today
special
From Middle English especial. From Middle English special, especial, especiall, from Old French especial (whence also French spécial), from Latin speciālis (from speciēs). In this sense displaced native synderlīċ. a doublet of especial.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA