Etymology

specimen

spe·ci·men
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Today it means: An individual instance that represents a class; an example. Full definition →

Latin specimen
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromspecimen“mark, sign, example”
  2. English todayspecimen

From Latin specimen (“mark, sign, example”), from speciō (“observe, watch”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.