Dictionary

inspecific en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˌɪn.spɪˈsɪf.ɪk/ (Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Scotland)
• /ˌən.spəˈsəf.ək/ (New-Zealand)
• /ˌin.spiˈsif.ik/ (India)
• ĭn′spĭ-sĭf′ĭk

Etymology

From in- + specific.

Meanings

1. (uncommon) Nonspecific, unspecific.
   • This is, of course, an optimism, and an inspecific optimism at that, since there is in it no antecedent commitment to just which normative concepts will prove sustainable in this way. 2006, David Copp, The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, →ISBN, page 59:
   • (1) Used to curse in an inspecific way the addressee or another person or thing referenced. “There never was such a murderer born into this wicked world as Adam Penfeather, with a curse!” (Roger Tressady, Black Bartlemy's Treasure 302) 2010, George Choundas, The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues, →ISBN, page 65:
   • But though including irrelevant characteristics in our moral generalization does not affect its truth, it does affect its usefulness, and the more irrelevant characteristics we can eliminate from our characterization of the class of actions which are being said to be wrong, and the more inspecific this class in consequence becomes, the more actions it will apply to, and so the more useful it will be. 2014, Jonathan Harrison, Our Knowledge of Right and Wrong, →ISBN:
   • An inspecific action resulting in the reduced seed production of the mutant. As this effect is in principle similar in many genotypes homozygous for different mutant genes, it cannot be due to distinct changes of the nucleotide sequence of the DNA. 2012, W. Gottschalk, G. Wolff, Induced Mutations in Plant Breeding, →ISBN, page 21:
   • [...]; in this case it is the indeterminate antecedent stage of an inspecific measurement process[.] 2002, Meinard Kuhlmann, Holger Lyre, Andrew Wayne, Ontological Aspects of Quantum Field Theory, →ISBN, page 92:
   • From what we have seen (Chapter 2), we can expect uno si- to be an individualized impersonal reflexive; that is, to use an inspecific person acting in his own interest as representative of some larger group. 2017, Joseph Davis, The Substance and Value of Italian Si, →ISBN, page 208:

Forms