peculiar

Etymology

From Latin pecūliāris (“one's own”), from pecūlium (“private property”), from pecus (“cattle”).

adj

1. Out of the ordinary; odd; strange; unusual.
   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. 1800, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Deseret Weekly, volume 41, page 379
   "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." 2001, Jack Schaefer, Wendell Minor, Shane
   2008, Stephen Arnott, Peculiar Proverbs: Weird Words of Wisdom from Around the World:
2. Common or usual for a certain place or circumstance; specific or particular.
   Kangaroos are peculiar to Australia.
   This philosopher found his ideas especially in all that is practical, that is, which rests upon freedom, which in its turn ranks under cognitions that are the peculiar product of reason. 1855, Meiklejohn, John Miller Dow, transl., Critique of Pure Reason, volume 1, division 2, translation of Critik der reinen Vernunft by Immanuel Kant
   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; 1863, Thomas Huxley, Collected Essays
   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. 1895, Alfred Russel Wallace, “XX: Anomalous Islands: Celebes”, in Island Life
3. (dated) One's own; belonging solely or especially to an individual; not shared or possessed by others.
   Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 1769, King James Bible, Titus ii. 14
   hymns […] that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
4. (dated) Particular; individual; special; appropriate.
   while each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat 1629, John Milton, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
   My fate is Juno's most peculiar care. 1697, Dryden, John, transl., Aeneid, translation of Aeneis by Virgil

noun

1. That which is peculiar; a sole or exclusive property; a prerogative; a characteristic.
   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.
2. (UK, canon law) an ecclesiastical district, parish, chapel or church outside the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is situated.