Other forms: specified, specifies, specifying
To specify is to state exactly which one and how. Specify the size, unless otherwise specified, specify in writing.
It is the word that turns a general instruction into a usable one, which is why it fills contracts, orders and technical documents: specify the material, specify the deadline. Unless otherwise specified is the standard fallback clause. Note specification, usually shortened to spec; and specific, which comes from the same Latin word meaning of a particular kind.
1verbspecifyTo state exactly which one and how.
“The recipe doesn't specify what kind of flour to use.”
specify is a stating exactly.
Medieval Latin specificare comes from specificus, of a particular kind, from species, a kind. Special, species and spice come from the same root.
Medieval Latin
specificō
Old French
specifier
Middle English
specifien
English, today
specify
Built from
From Middle English specifien, from Old French specifier, especefier, or directly from Medieval Latin specificō, from specificus (“specific”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA