/rɪˈspɛktɪv/
[adjective] Belonging separately to each of the people or things that have just been mentioned. It is used to show that something applies to each person or thing individually, in the order they were named.
'Respective' originally meant 'attentive' and 'respectful' — its modern meaning of 'belonging to each' came much later.
The story of 'respective' begins in ancient Rome, with the Latin verb 'respicere', meaning 'to look back at' or 'to look again carefully'. This verb was built from two parts: the prefix 're-', meaning 'back' or 'again', and 'specere', meaning 'to look'. From 'respicere' came the noun 'respectus', which meant a looking back, a regard, or careful attention paid to something. This root gave Latin a whole family of words connected to the idea of careful observation and consideration.
The word traveled into Medieval Latin as 'respectivus', where it was used to describe something that showed careful regard or attention. From there, it crossed into Middle French as 'respectif', carrying the same sense of being attentive, considerate, or relating to a particular thing. It was in this form that the word arrived in English during the 15th century, borrowed directly from the French.
In its earliest English use, 'respective' did not mean what it means today. Writers used it to describe a person who was thoughtful, attentive, or showed proper respect — someone who 'looked carefully' at a situation or person, just as the Latin root suggested. Shakespeare himself used the word in this older sense, as did other writers of the 16th century. This meaning has now completely disappeared from everyday English.
Gradually, through the 16th and 17th centuries, the meaning shifted. Instead of describing a person who was attentive, 'respective' began to describe a relationship between things — specifically, the idea that certain items or qualities belong separately to specific people or groups. If you say 'the players returned to their respective positions', you mean each player returned to their own position. This sense of careful one-to-one correspondence grew naturally from the original idea of 'looking at each thing carefully and separately'.
The Latin root 'specere' — to look — is remarkably productive in English, having given us dozens of familiar words through different paths. Latin 'specere' → Latin 'spectare' → Old French 'espectacle' → English 'spectacle'. The same root 'specere' → Latin 'inspicere' → Latin 'inspectionem' → Old French 'inspection' → English 'inspection'. And 'specere' → Latin 'perspicere' → Latin 'perspectiva' → English 'perspective'. Every time you look at a spectacle, conduct an inspection, or consider someone's perspective, you are using words built from the very same ancient root as 'respective' — all circling back to the simple Roman act of looking carefully at the world.