peculiar
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪˈkjuː.li.ə/
ipa: /pəˈkjuː.li.ə/
ipa: /pɪˈkjul.jɚ/
ipa: /pəˈkjul.jɚ/
ipa: /pɪˈkjʉː.li.ə/
Forms: form: more peculiar
form: most peculiar
Etymology: From Latin pecūliāris (“one's own”), from pecūlium (“private property”), from pecus (“cattle”).
Senses: examples: text: The sky had a peculiar appearance before the storm.
text: It would be rather peculiar to see a kangaroo hopping down a city street.
text: I saw nothing peculiar in his conduct, and thought that his arrangement of the ballot box was perfect.
ref: 1800, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Deseret Weekly, volume 41, page 379:
text: "Wasn't it peculiar," I heard mother say, "How he wouldn't talk about himself?"
"Peculiar?" said father. "Well, yes, in a way."
"Everything about him is peculiar." Mother sounded as if she was stirred up and interested. "I never saw a man quite like him before."
ref: 2001, Jack Schaefer, Wendell Minor, Shane:
ref: 2008, Stephen Arnott, Peculiar Proverbs: Weird Words of Wisdom from Around the World:
synonyms: odd
strange
uncommon
unusual
antonyms: common
mediocre
ordinary
usual
glosses: Out of the ordinary; odd; strange; unusual.
examples: text: Kangaroos are peculiar to Australia.
text: And it was peculiar in their Temper, that they were fonder of what they could get by Rapine or Stealth at a greater diſtance, than much better Food provided for them at home.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Great Love of His Native Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 262:
text: This philosopher found his ideas especially in all that is practical,^([29]) that is, which rests upon freedom, which in its turn ranks under cognitions that are the peculiar product of reason.
ref: 1855, Meiklejohn, John Miller Dow, transl., Critique of Pure Reason, volume 1, division 2, translation of Critik der reinen Vernunft by Immanuel Kant:
text: As soon as that operation has taken place, the food is passed down to the stomach, and there it is mixed with the chemical fluid called the gastric juice, a substance which has the peculiar property of making soluble and dissolving out the nutritious matter in the grass, and leaving behind those parts which are not nutritious;
ref: 1863, Thomas Huxley, Collected Essays:
text: But of late years extensive Tertiary deposits of Miocene age have been discovered, showing that it is not a mere congeries of volcanoes; it [Iceland] is connected with the British Islands and with Greenland by seas less than 500 fathoms deep; and it possesses a few mammalia, one of which is peculiar, and at least three peculiar species of birds.
ref: 1895, Alfred Russel Wallace, “XX: Anomalous Islands: Celebes”, in Island Life:
synonyms: specific
antonyms: common
general
universal
glosses: Common or usual for a certain place or circumstance; specific or particular.
examples: text: Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
ref: 1769, King James Bible, Titus ii. 14:
text: hymns […] that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself
ref: 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie:
glosses: One's own; belonging solely or especially to an individual; not shared or possessed by others.
examples: text: while each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat
ref: 1629, John Milton, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity:
text: My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.
ref: 1697, Dryden, John, transl., Aeneid, translation of Aeneis by Virgil:
glosses: Particular; individual; special; appropriate.
Synonyms: sense: out of the ordinary
word: strange
sense: common or usual in a particular place or circumstance
word: specific
Derived terms: chemically peculiar star
funny peculiar
peculiaries
peculiar institution
peculiarise
peculiarism
peculiarity
peculiarization
peculiarize
peculiarly
peculiar motion
peculiarness
Peculiar People
peculiarsome
peculiar velocity