respective
- 1Relating to each of several particular people or things separately, taken one by one.
Like coats on a row of hooks, where each person reaches for the one that is theirs.
The committee members presented the budgets for their respective departments.
At the ceremony, the winners stood beside their respective trophies.
Similarindividual, particular, separate, own, specific
Note
The one sense still in everyday use, and it nearly always travels with a plural: their respective places, the respective keepers. Its job is to pair things off, each with its own. It can also match two lists in order, as when Hitachi and CAF return to their respective Newton Aycliffe and Newport factories. It does not compare, so nothing is more respective than another. The word comes from Medieval Latin respectivus, from Latin respectus.
- 2Defined by reference or comparison to something else, and therefore relative rather than fixed or absolute.
Like saying a hill is steep: true only compared to the flatter ground around it.
To the old philosophers, motion was respective, meaningful only against a fixed point.
He argued that all such measures were respective, depending wholly on the observer's position.
Note
Its natural opposite is absolute, and its near twin is relative. The obsolete phrase the respective connections of society means the ties that exist only in relation to one another. It does not mean each person's own ties, although the wording now invites that reading from the "each to its own" meaning. Read it with care in older texts, and do not reach for it in new writing.
- 3Attentive and cautious, noticing things carefully and keeping a wary eye on one's surroundings.
Note
Watchfulness was once part of the word. In his letter to Bernard Gilpin, Edwin Sandys urges him to look upon the estate of the church of England "with a respective eye", meaning closely and with care rather than one by one. The sense is obsolete, so expect it only in older prose. A modern reader will hear the "each to its own" meaning instead.
Less common meanings
- 4Showing respect and dutiful regard toward others in word and manner.
With a respective shame, rose, took us by the hands.
[1611?], Homer, The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poetsa. 1598, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, instructions to his son Robert Cecil, when young With thy equals familiar, yet respective.
Note
Where a modern writer would say respectful, Elizabethans could say respective. William Cecil, Lord Burghley, advised his son to be "with thy equals familiar, yet respective": friendly without dropping courtesy. George Chapman's Iliad of 1611 has a figure rise "with a respective shame." The sense is obsolete, so use respectful when you mean it today.
- 5Possessing a quality or appearance that naturally awakens respect in those who see it.
What should it be that he respects in her / But I can make respective in myself,
c. 1590, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”Note
Shakespeare plays verb against adjective in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "What should it be that he respects in her / But I can make respective in myself." Whatever earns his respect, the speaker can make worthy of respect in herself. The line shows how close the adjective still sat to respect itself. The sense is obsolete and survives mainly in readings of lines like this one.
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
Borrowed from Medieval Latin "respectivus," from Latin "respectus"; it can also be analyzed as "respect" plus the suffix "-ive."