A few days back a former colleague of mine called me up. She now works with a magazine, and seems to be doing well. She just has that one problem only — she is not quite sure whether she works with a specialty magazine or a speciality magazine. I don't blame her — not many people do. Someone told her the first is the American way of writing it, and the second British. She also looked up a few dictionaries, and ended up even more confused.
Merriam-Webster differentiates the two this way:
- Specialty can be a distinctive mark or quality. Or, it can be something in which one specialises. It can be the state of being special, distinctive, or peculiar. Or still, it can be a special object or class of objects like a legal agreement embodied in a sealed instrument, or a product of a special kind or of special excellence.
- Speciality, on the other hand, can be either a special mark or quality, or a special object or class of objects, or a special aptitude or skill. Worse, as M-W says, it can also be a specialty.
And, OED calls specialty an Americanised version of speciality.
There you are.
The best way, thefore, to avoid confusion and circumvent the problem altogether would be to use speciality when meaning the special character of something; and specialty when referring to a special line of work or business. And yes, one would need to be religiously consistent in usage.
So, what's your magazine's speciality?
Well, it specialises in a specialty (whatever that might be).
