Careful Words

special (n.)

special (adj.)

For gold in phisike is a cordial;

Therefore he loved gold in special.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 445.

  There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.

Can such things be,

And overcome us like a summer's cloud,

Without our special wonder?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.