peculiar

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English peculier,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin pecūliāris (“of one's own property; private, special”),^{[5][2][6][7][8]} perhaps partly through Old French peculiaire or peculier;^[9][10] the Anglo-Norman adjective peculier, particular or specific, is recorded from about 1450.^[11] The Latin adjective is from pecūlium (“private property”),^[5][9][7][4] literally "property in cattle",^[9][7] from pecū (“cattle, flock”),^[9][6][7] related to pecus (“cattle”);^[9][6][3] Barnhart places a lost adjective *pecūlis (“as one's own”) between the noun and pecū.^[6] The Latin words go back to Proto-Indo-European *peku-,^[2] which is also the source of Old English feoh (“livestock, property”), Old Saxon fehu and Old High German fihu (modern German Vieh), and so of fee.^[8][4] In early times cattle were the main form of property, and the same Latin word for cattle lies behind peculate, pecuniary and impecunious.^[4][9][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Distinguished from others, special, distinctive: about 1449, in Pecock's Repressor.^[5][6] Etymonline gives the first sense as "belonging exclusively to one person";^[9] the OED records it from before 1475 of property belonging to one person or group.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The idea of "one's own alone" runs through the early senses.^[12] In the 16th century the word meant characteristic of a person or thing (1509), and peculiar to, belonging exclusively to (about 1545);^[5] Merriam-Webster notes that the 1555 statement "it was a peculier maner of the Kynges of the Medes, to haue many wiues" meant a custom characteristic of those kings, not an odd one.^[4] The sense "strange, odd" grew naturally out of "exclusively one's own, distinctive":^[4] it is first clearly found in Topsell's Historie of Serpents (1608),^[5][4] and is dated to the early 17th century by other dictionaries.^[13][14][8] In the Church of England a peculiar parish or court was exempt from the bishop's jurisdiction (about 1525), and the noun peculiar named such a parish from 1562.^[5][3] Weekley notes that the peculiar people were the Jews in the 15th century, and that the modern sect of that name dates from 1838.^[10] The euphemism peculiar institution for slavery in the United States is found by 1838.^[9] In the 20th century the word entered astronomy, for the motion of a star relative to its neighbours (1927) and for a star (1913) or galaxy (1936) that does not fit its class.^[5] In slang it has meant a wife (1615) or mistress (1688), and as an adjective deranged or, euphemistically, homosexual.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1449 – distinctive, special.^[5][6]
• before 1475 – of property, belonging to one person (obsolete by 1668).^[5]
• 1509 – characteristic of a person or thing.^[5]
• c. 1525 – exempt from the bishop's jurisdiction.^[5]
• c. 1545 – peculiar to.^[5]
• 1562 – noun, a parish exempt from the diocese's jurisdiction.^[5][3]
• 1608 – strange, odd.^[5][4]
• 1838 – peculiar institution, slavery.^[9]
• 1913 – of a star, not typical of its spectral class.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Strange or unusual; odd: There was a peculiar smell in the cellar.^[16][3][5]
2. peculiar to: belonging only or characteristically to a person, group or place: a custom peculiar to the island.^[16][5][3]
3. Special or distinct from others; particular.^[16][5]
4. (Church of England) Exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese.^[5]

Noun

1. (Church of England) A parish, church or court exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese in which it lies.^[3][5][16]
2. (printing) A special sort of type, especially an accented letter.^[16]

Word family

• peculiarly
• peculiarity
• peculiarize
• peculiar institution
• Peculiar People

Related words

• peculium
• peculate
• pecuniary
• impecunious
• fee

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins