peculiar
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Latin pecūliāris (“one's own”), from pecūlium (“private property”), from pecus (“cattle”).
Inflected forms:
form: more peculiar
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most peculiar
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: peculiars
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Out of the ordinary; odd; strange; unusual.
pos: adj
examples: The sky had a peculiar appearance before the storm.
It would be rather peculiar to see a kangaroo hopping down a city street.
I saw nothing peculiar in his conduct, and thought that his arrangement of the ballot box was perfect.
"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."
Blue and gold macaws are not native to Caracas. But over the past two decades their numbers in Venezuela's capital have skyrocketed, with hundreds of these birds now flying freely across the city, and dazzling locals with their colorful feathers and peculiar calls.
gloss: Common or usual for a certain place or circumstance; specific or particular.
pos: adj
examples: Kangaroos are peculiar to Australia.
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.
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.
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;
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.
gloss: One's own; belonging solely or especially to an individual; not shared or possessed by others.
pos: adj
tags: dated
examples: Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
hymns […] that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself
gloss: Particular; individual; special; appropriate.
pos: adj
tags: dated
examples: while each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat
My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.
gloss: That which is peculiar; a sole or exclusive property; a prerogative; a characteristic.
pos: noun
examples: before 1716, Robert South, Twelve Sermons
If anything can legalize revenge, it should be injury from an extremely obliged person; but revenge is so absolutely the peculiar of heaven.
gloss: an ecclesiastical district, parish, chapel or church outside the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is situated.
pos: noun
tags: UK
Related words: Peculiar in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Derived words: chemically peculiar star
funny peculiar
peculiaries
peculiar institution
peculiarise
peculiarism
peculiarity
peculiarization
peculiarize
peculiarly
peculiar motion
peculiarness
Peculiar People
peculiarsome
peculiar velocity
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