the.com/specimen
A single thing forced to represent its entire kind, pinned and outnumbered.
means A single example of something, especially one studied, examined, or displayed as representative of a larger group or category.
from From Latin specimen, "a mark, sign, or token," built on specere, "to look at" — the same root that watches over inspect, spectacle, and species. A specimen, then, is literally something to be looked at: a sample held up to the eye as proof of what the whole kind is like.
- Latin root
- From specere, to look — a thing meant for seeing
- type specimen
- One physical body defines an entire species forever
- holotype
- Lose it and the species loses its anchor
- jar duty
- Many float in ethanol or formalin for centuries
- fine specimen
- Backhanded compliment for a suspiciously impressive human
for instance
lucy skeleton — 3.2 million year old australopithecus afarensis found in ethiopia, 1974
piltdown man — fraudulent early human specimen planted in england, exposed 1912-1953