peculiarity

Etymology

It is formed from English peculiar + -ity.^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Dictionary.com derive it instead from the late Latin noun pecūliāritās,^[5][6] and Etymonline leaves both open.^[7] The OED only compares that noun, which meant private property, the right to hold it, particular care or affection, and a special manner from the 6th century, as well as Spanish peculiaridad (“distinguishing characteristic”).^[2] Peculiar is from Latin pecūliāris (“of one's own property”),^[8][7][4] from pecūlium (“private property”), based on pecū (“cattle, flock”), since cattle were the chief form of wealth.^[8][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of belonging to or being characteristic of one person or thing: 1606, in a letter by H. Wotton.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the same year.^[5] Barnhart and Etymonline instead start with the sense of exclusive possession, which they date to 1610 and about 1600.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The noun follows the adjective, whose older sense "belonging to one alone" gave way to "strange".^[8][9] In the 17th century it could still mean exclusive ownership, and in theology the condition of being God's chosen people, senses now dead;^[2][3] a particular liking for a person, recorded from 1687, survived until 1850, and Fanny Burney is quoted for it.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) gives only the older idea, "something found only in one".^[10] The modern sense of oddity, an unusual trait, appears in 1751 in the OED;^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline first find it in 1777, Barnhart naming Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.^[4][7] In 1838 Samuel Wilberforce used the word disparagingly for evangelicalism, from the noun peculiar, a use the OED marks as rare and obsolete.^[2]

Timeline

• 1606 – the quality of being peculiar to one person or thing; a distinguishing trait.^[2] Barnhart dates the trait to 1646, Etymonline to the 1640s.^[4][7]
• 1611 – exclusive possession (obsolete).^[2] Barnhart dates this to 1610.^[4]
• 1680 – in theology, the condition of being God's chosen people (obsolete by 1777).^[2]
• 1687 – a particular liking, a partiality (obsolete by 1850).^[2]
• 1747 – special attentiveness to a person (obsolete), in Richardson's Clarissa.^[2]
• 1751 – unusualness, oddity; an odd trait.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date this to 1777.^[4][7]
• 1838 – disparagingly, evangelicalism (obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strange or unusual habit or trait; an oddity: One peculiarity of his was to lock every door twice.^[11][2]
2. A feature that marks out a particular person or thing; a distinguishing characteristic or idiosyncrasy: a peculiarity of the local dialect.^[11][5][2]
3. The quality of being peculiar; distinctiveness, or strangeness.^[11][5][2]
4. (obsolete, 1687–1850) A special liking for someone; partiality.^[2][5]
5. (obsolete) Exclusive possession; private ownership.^[2][3]
6. (obsolete, 1680–1777; theology) The condition of being God's chosen people.^[2][3]

Related words

• peculiar
• peculate
• pecuniary
• fee

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins