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specimen

amateurr

Senior Member
Russian
"I see you've met Rodrigo. Quite a specimen, isn't he?"

Could you tell me what she means by "specimen"?
If you look up "specimen" in the WR dictionary, one of the definitions (2) is an example, or representation of its class. (Particularly in a scientific sense.)
She's saying that Rodrigo is quite a fine example of a man, meaning: "isn't he a really good-looking man?"
the word "specimen" has nothing to do with good or bad. We might assume that it's complimentary in this case, but note that "morning specimen" is a common term for a sample of urine taken in the morning for laboratory analysis.

I would not make any assumptions without more context.
I agree fully with sdgraham. Lacking any context, this might well mean that he is particularly foul-smelling, deformed, and in general a specimen of all that is ugly and unattractive.

"I see you've met Rodrigo. Quite a specimen, isn't he?"


Rodrigo may also be a pedigreed Bassett Hound. We don't know.
Rodrigo is editor in chief of Mode Brasil magazine. You could say he's a fashionable, stylish, polite, attractive therefore has his way with women man. So, I guess Esca was right.
This is a fine specimen of a thread in which the context arrives just in the nick of time, after lots of speculation. Perhaps some day the context will show up where it belongs: in the first post.
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