Peculiar,

8 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Peculiar \Pe*cul"iar\, a. [L. peculiaris, fr. peculium private
     property, akin to pecunia money: cf. OF. peculier. See
     {Pecuniary}.]
     1. One's own; belonging solely or especially to an
        individual; not possessed by others; of private, personal,
        or characteristic possession and use; not owned in common


        or in participation.
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              And purify unto himself a peculiar people. --Titus
                                                    ii. 14.
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              Hymns . . . that Christianity hath peculiar unto
              itself.                               --Hooker.
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     2. Particular; individual; special; appropriate.
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              While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.
                                                    --Milton.
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              My fate is Juno's most peculiar care. --Dryden.
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     3. Unusual; singular; rare; strange; as, the sky had a
        peculiar appearance.
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     Syn: {Peculiar}, {Special}, {Especial}.
  
     Usage: Peculiar is from the Roman peculium, which was a thing
            emphatically and distinctively one's own, and hence
            was dear. The former sense always belongs to peculiar
            (as, a peculiar style, peculiar manners, etc.), and
            usually so much of the latter as to involve feelings
            of interest; as, peculiar care, watchfulness,
            satisfaction, etc. Nothing of this kind belongs to
            special and especial. They mark simply the relation of
            species to genus, and denote that there is something
            in this case more than ordinary; as, a special act of
            Congress; especial pains, etc.
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                  Beauty, which, either walking or asleep,
                  Shot forth peculiar graces.       --Milton.
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                  For naught so vile that on the earth doth live,
                  But to the earth some special good doth give.
                                                    --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Peculiar \Pe*cul"iar\, n.
     1. That which is peculiar; a sole or exclusive property; a
        prerogative; a characteristic.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Revenge is . . . the peculiar of Heaven. --South.
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     2. (Eng. Canon Law) A particular parish or church which is
        exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary.
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     {Court of Peculiars} (Eng. Law), a branch of the Court of
        Arches having cognizance of the affairs of peculiars.
        --Blackstone.
  
     {Dean of peculiars}. See under {Dean}, 1.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  peculiar
       adj 1: beyond or deviating from the usual or expected; "a curious
              hybrid accent"; "her speech has a funny twang"; "they
              have some funny ideas about war"; "had an odd name";
              "the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves"; "something
              definitely queer about this town"; "what a rum
              fellow"; "singular behavior" [syn: {curious}, {funny},
               {odd}, {queer}, {rum}, {rummy}, {singular}]
       2: unique or specific to a person or thing or category; "the
          particular demands of the job"; "has a paraticular
          preference for Chinese art"; "a peculiar bond of sympathy
          between them"; "an expression peculiar to Canadians";
          "rights peculiar to the rich"; "the special features of a
          computer"; "my own special chair" [syn: {particular(a)}, {peculiar(a)},
           {special(a)}]
       3: markedly different from the usual; "a peculiar hobby of
          stuffing and mounting bats"; "a man...feels it a peculiar
          insult to be taunted with cowardice by a woman"-Virginia
          Woolf
       4: characteristic of one only; distinctive or special; "the
          peculiar character of the Government of the U.S."-
          R.B.Taney [syn: {peculiar(a)}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  159 Moby Thesaurus words for "peculiar":
     aberrant, abnormal, absurd, anomalous, another, appropriate,
     appropriate to, arbitrary, atypical, bizarre, categorical,
     characteristic, characterizing, classificational, classificatory,
     connotative, contrastive, crank, crankish, cranky, crotchety,
     curious, defining, demonstrative, denominative, denotative,
     designative, deviant, deviate, deviative, diacritical, diagnostic,
     differencing, different, differential, differentiative,
     discriminating, discriminative, distinct, distinctive,
     distinguished, distinguishing, divergent, divisional, divisionary,
     dotty, eccentric, else, emblematic, erratic, evidential,
     exceptional, exhibitive, expressive, extraordinary, fey, figural,
     figurative, flaky, freaked out, freakish, freaky, funny,
     identifying, ideographic, idiocratic, idiosyncratic, implicative,
     in character, indicating, indicative, indicatory, individual,
     individualizing, individuating, intrinsic, irregular, kinky, kooky,
     maggoty, marked, meaningful, metaphorical, naming, native to,
     natural to, not that sort, not the same, not the type, nutty, odd,
     oddball, of a sort, of another sort, of sorts, off, off the wall,
     offbeat, ordinal, other, other than, otherwise, out,
     out-of-the-way, outlandish, particular, passing strange,
     pathognomonic, personal, personalizing, private, proper, quaint,
     queer, quintessential, quirky, rare, representative, rum,
     screwball, screwy, semantic, semiotic, separative, signalizing,
     significant, significative, signifying, single, singular, sort,
     special, specific, strange, subdivisional, suggestive, sui generis,
     symbolic, symbolistic, symbological, symptomatic, symptomatologic,
     taxonomic, true to form, twisted, typal, typical, uncommon,
     unconventional, uncustomary, unearthly, unique, unnatural,
     unorthodox, unusual, wacky, weird, whimsical, wondrous strange
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Peculiar
     as used in the phrase "peculiar people" in 1 Pet. 2:9, is
     derived from the Lat. peculium, and denotes, as rendered in the
     Revised Version ("a people for God's own possession"), a special
     possession or property. The church is the "property" of God, his
     "purchased possession" (Eph. 1:14; R.V., "God's own
     possession").
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PECULIAR, eccl. law. In England, a particular parish or church, which has, 
  within itself, independent of the ordinary jurisdiction, power to grant 
  probate of wills, and the like. 1 Eng. Eccl. R. 72, note; Shelf. on Mar. & 
  Div. 538. Vide Court of peculiars. 
  
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Peculiar, MO (city, FIPS 56756)
    Location: 38.72309 N, 94.45786 W
    Population (1990): 1777 (673 housing units)
    Area: 3.5 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
    Zip code(s): 64078

From U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000) [gaz-place]:

  Peculiar, MO -- U.S. city in Missouri
     Population (2000):    2604
     Housing Units (2000): 983
     Land area (2000):     3.496290 sq. miles (9.055348 sq. km)
     Water area (2000):    0.046421 sq. miles (0.120231 sq. km)
     Total area (2000):    3.542711 sq. miles (9.175579 sq. km)
     FIPS code:            56756
     Located within:       Missouri (MO), FIPS 29
     Location:             38.720896 N, 94.456733 W
     ZIP Codes (1990):     64078
     Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
     Headwords:
      Peculiar, MO
      Peculiar